BY VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO
victoriangozii@gmail.com 08033077519
 
As far back as we can remember, way back before the oldest person  was born, the richest, wealthiest persons on earth used to be called ‘millionaires’. A million naira is one thousand naira in one thousand places. That is, one thousand naira….200,000 naira……..N400,000, N500,000…..N700,000….N900,000 and then N1000,000 (one thousand, thousand naira). This was a huge amount. Very few Nigerians belonged to this elite group of millionaires at the time. Amongst Nigeria’s earliest Millionaires was Sir Louis Odumegwu-Ojukwu a transport magnate.
 
   Nigeria’s indigenisation policy of 1975 brought more northerners into the Millionaires’ club. At the time Nigeria’s annual budget used to be in tens and later hundreds of millions of naira.  The oil windfall that greatly increased Nigeria’s revenues together with the ‘Udoji awards’ (upward review of civil servants’ salaries and wages accompanied with bumper arrears) multiplied workers’ purchasing power. Recall that Nigeria changed to indigenous currency in 1973, known as naira and kobo. Until then we were using the British pound and shilling. Then, counting changed from multiples of 12 to multiples of ten which made/make arithmetic easier. Head of state at the time, General Olusegun Obasanjo in 1976 (half a century ago) introduced the N20 note as Nigeria’s highest currency denomination. Other higher naira notes have since been introduced, namely, N100, N200, N500 and N1,000. Attempting to introduce a N5,000 note a few years ago was unsuccessful due to general concerns. It was seen as an action that would majorly benefit the elites in view of their expensive lifestyles.
 
 However, I believe that it is only a matter of time, in less than ten years hence, before the N5,000 note comes on board. I also believe that in our lifetime we may see way higher currency notes like N10,000. These projections are based on market trends. Ultimately, I foresee a ‘recalibration’ of our currency as former CBN governor, Charles Soludo once attempted years ago and as Ghana did years ago too. With the ‘recalibration’, N1,000 may be equal to N100, N5000 N500 and so on and so forth. With each introduction of a higher denomination note, the lowest cadre ones become almost worthless in terms of what they can buy in our markets.
 
    For example, does anyone still remember that we used to have kobo coins, the highest and latest at the time being 20 and 25 kobo coins? These have been practically effaced from our memory, the kobo coins have long become antiquated. As at today, the ten naira and 20 naira notes though still being printed by the authorities, cannot buy you anything in any market. The least commodity you can buy with the N50 note is sachet water. This was something that used to be sold for just N5 a few years ago, then N10 and later N20 not long ago. In a supermarket the smallest product that N100 can fetch you is sweet and biscuits — for kids really. To be able to cook a good pot of soup in today’s Nigeria, you would need about N10,000. A bottle of mineral drink that cost just N50 previously now goes for N500. And whereas you could once fill your car tank with only N5,000, you need N40,000 to N50,000 to do so now.
 
The small time businessman/businesswoman now trades in hundreds of thousands of naira while the average businessman does so in millions of naira. For this group and their ilk, being a millionaire is no longer an exclusive club. In fact it is now an all-comers affair, more or less. A new, tightly knit club has emerged, that of Billionaires. We have quite a number of them in our midst (Nigeria). That is now the yardstick for gauging a rich person, being a billionaire. Times are changing.  Nevertheless, as we say in Nigerian parlance, ‘there are billionaires and there are billionaires’.
 
Thus, a distinction is now being made between naira billionaires and dollar billionaires; that is, billionaires in naira and billionaires in dollars. The latter is in a highly exclusive group. When someone in Nigeria says he is a billionaire in dollars or someone tells you that Mr. A is a billionaire in dollars, it means the Nigerian is among a rare breed of rich people. Therewith, we have local billionaires (naira billionaires) and international (dollar) billionaires. A Nigerian who is a billionaire in dollars is heading towards being classed as  a trillionaire in naira terms. And in some two decades or so we may well be talking of trillionaires in Nigeria. That would be the future ‘bragging right’ so to speak.
 
   We are already seeing the beginnings of that now, we are already speaking of trillions of naira in certain sectors.  For instance, some of our banks have reached the trillion naira mark in their recapitalisation. Some state governments’ annual budgets are now in a trillion naira.  Only Lagos state was hitting that figure sometime ago. But now in their  current budgets, 11 states budgeted over a trillion naira for their services this year (recurrent and capital expenditures). The breakdown is as follows:  Lagos N4.24 trillion; Rivers N1.85 trillion; Delta N1.73; Ogun N1.67 trillion; Enugu N1.62 trillion; Akwa Ibom N1.58 trillion; Kano N1.48 trillion; Imo N1.44 trillion; Niger N1.07 trillion; Abia N1.02 trillion; Bayelsa N1.02 trillion.  Altogether the 36 states’ total budget for this 2026 stands at a whooping N36.98 trillion, a record, as the highest ever. And then the federal government itself says it is targeting a record one trillion dollars economy by 2030. This is close to quadrillion naira. Quadrillion naira is an amount that is not yet in our Nigerian dictionary. But we are very familiar with  billion naira and shall sooner or later get used to trillion naira. The Trillionaires are coming.
 
   However, our millionaires and coming trillionaires should be aware that money is only a means to an end. It should not be accumulated for accumulation’s sake. Nor should they become so attached to their money to believe that the sole purpose of life here is to acquire as much money as we can. They should endeavour to add value to their wealth, use it to enable those that cross their path to get some lasting, eternal values for themselves.