Veteran Nollywood filmmaker and founder of LAIBAN Movie Production, Olaide Olabanji, has expressed concern over the declining purchasing power of the Nigerian naira, using the N1,000 note to illustrate the country’s economic difficulties.
Olabanji raised the concern in an Instagram video on Wednesday, where he lamented the rising cost of basic household and transportation needs.
He noted that the country’s highest denomination no longer goes as far as it once did, pointing specifically to the prices of cooking gas and petrol.
“Your highest money N1,000 cannot buy 1kg of gas. Your highest currency cannot buy you one liter of petrol. Something is definitely wrong with Nigeria. So sad,” he said.
The filmmaker’s comments come amid persistent concerns over the rising cost of living and the weakening purchasing power of the naira.
The N1,000 banknote was introduced on October 12, 2005, during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the time, the official exchange rate stood at about N132 to the US dollar, putting the value of the note at more than $7.
According to a report by Quartus Economics cited by DAILY POST, the N1,000 note has since lost more than 94 per cent of its purchasing power.
The erosion of the naira’s value has increasingly affected the cost of everyday necessities, leaving consumers with less purchasing power even when their nominal income remains unchanged.
Olabanji, who has also been vocal about governance issues, used the falling value of the currency to highlight what he described as a troubling state of the Nigerian economy.
