The total lockdown on Lagos, Ogun and Abuja in the battle against coronavirus earlier announced by President Muhammadu Buhari, has been relaxed as financial institutions are now exempted – albeit not fully.
Buhari had on Sunday evening imposed a curfew on Lagos and Abuja on account of their top positions in the pecking order of areas where the pandemic is most recorded while Ogun where the index case happened made the list because of its proximity to Lagos.
The President had in the live nationwide broadcast exempted only those in essential services such as medical workers, military and paramilitary and journalists and broadcasters among others from the 14-day curfew.
But the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Hajia Zainab Ahmed and Godwin Emefiele said they prevailed on Buhari to exempt key players in the financial services sector from COVID- 19 movement restrictions, in a statement they jointly signed.
It reads in part: “To ensure that Nigerians can still perform online transactions and use ATMs whilst observing these restrictions, we will like to inform the general public and all affected stakeholders that we have obtained exemptions from the President to allow very skeletal operations in the Financial System and Money Markets in order to keep the system in light operations during this time.
“All relevant staff of affected outfits and agencies should look out for further instructions from their immediate bosses.”
