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The ₦50 paper banknote features the portraits of four ordinary Nigerians from various ethnic groups and cultures who represent the people of Nigeria. When this 50 NGN note was introduced in the early 1990’s it got the nickname ‘Better Life’.
Most Nigerian currencies are not called by their actual names rather they are refferred to with sobriquets ,and nicknames depending on the localities where such a statement is being made .
One of such currencies is the fifty naira note which is usually called better life most especially in Southwestern parts of the country, and here is the exact reason why that note got itself that name.
The fifty naira note was introduced during the regime of general Ibrahim Babangida whose wife midwifed the poverty alleviation scheme for women , known as better life. The Better Life Programme for Rural Women and amongst its noble objectives was “raising the consciousness of the rights of women, the availability of opportunities and facilities, their social, political and economic responsibilities.”
The better life scheme was a skill acquisition program targeted at making Nigerian women self reliant, and financially buoyant in the face of harsh economic situations.
The release of the currency into the national vault was at the time the better life scheme was in full swing and thus the nomenclature of that currency. Yorùbá People also called 50 naria “Waso”.
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