Federal Budgets — The Republic

Annual budgets, in chronological order

pre-1879 — 2024

Tributary revenues of the pre-colonial polities

Before the Royal Niger Company there was no single federal treasury — there were the kharaj and jizya of the Sokoto Caliphate, the palace customs of Benin, the comey of Bonny, Brass and Calabar, the ishakole tribute of Oyo, and the oracle dues of Arochukwu. Each polity ran its own fisc, denominated in cowries, manillas, brass rods, Maria Theresa thaler — currencies the British would crash between 1845 and 1912 (see Cowrie demonetisation).

Pre-1879 · indigenous fiscs

1886-1899Era 0 · RNC

Royal Niger Company accounts

From its 1886 Crown Charter to revocation on 31 December 1899, the Royal Niger Company was the de facto government of the Niger Basin. Its annual accounts — published in the City but never debated in Parliament — averaged £150,000–£250,000 in revenue, drawn from sterling-denominated tariffs on a population still trading in cowries and manillas.

£150k–£250k/yr

1900-1913Era 0.5 · Protectorates

Northern & Southern Protectorate Treasuries

Two parallel colonial budgets, deeply unequal. The Southern Protectorate ran consistent surpluses on customs from Lagos, Forcados, Calabar and Bonny; the Northern Protectorate ran chronic deficits, sustained by an Imperial Treasury subvention of ~£314,000/yr (1912). The structural imbalance was the operational reason for the 1914 Amalgamation.

South: surplus · North: subsidised

1914Era 0.5 · Amalgamation

First Amalgamated Budget — Nigeria

The first consolidated budget for a single 'Nigeria' — ₤4.4m revenue, ₤4.3m expenditure. Lagos and the Southern ports subsidised the Northern provinces from day one. See the Money record entry.

₤4.4m revenue

1946Late Colonial

Ten-Year Plan of Development & Welfare

The first long-range colonial development plan — ₤55m over ten years, of which ₤23m from the UK Colonial Development and Welfare Acts. The fiscal ancestor of every National Development Plan that followed.

₤55m / 10 years

19621st Republic