By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 24 July 2014:
The Central Bank of Libya (CBL) revealed today that it has, in cooperation with the Ministry . . .[restrict]of Interior, successfully distributed over the last few days ultra secure deliveries of about LD 300 million of cash to banks across Libya to cover the current acute liquidity shortage.
Yesterday, the CBL announced that it had successfully delivered LD 50 million by helicopter in a secret high security operation to all banks in the Nefusa mountain areas in western Libya.
The deliveries were made with very high security in attendance and in complete secrecy, the CBL explained.
It will be recalled that due to the increased number of armed robberies of banks and cash delivery vans, the CBL has been having difficulties delivering cash to banks.
Equally, the poor security situation in Tripoli due to the clashes between rival militias over the last week, has meant that numerous bank employees have been unable to get to work and many banks have been closed over the last week. The militia clashes have also affected deliveries of petrol which has acted as another impediment to bank employees making it to work.
The CBL explained that a specially prepared Ministry of Interior security force was assembled to execute the cash delivery plan.
This successful delivery of cash contrasts with the news on Tuesday that another helicopter carrying LD 15 million destined to the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Beida crashed killing one NCB employee
The CBL also announced that in an effort to make money available to the public, banks have been instructed to open this coming Saturday 26 July in the lead up to the three day Eid celebrations (end of Ramadan) . [/restrict]
