The 1914 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, gazetted on 1 January 1914 under Governor-General Sir Frederick Lugard, were the first unified public accounts for the territory now called Nigeria. Headline: revenue ₤4.4 million, expenditure ₤4.3 million.
• Customs revenue: ~₤2.1m, collected almost entirely at Lagos, Forcados, Calabar and Bonny. • Northern provinces' domestic revenue: under ₤800,000 (caravan tolls, native court fees, land revenue, partial cattle tax). • Northern provinces' expenditure: over ₤1.5m (administration, WAFF garrisons, Lagos–Kano Railway working). • Imperial Treasury grant: discontinued from 1914 — the Northern deficit was now to be borne by the Southern surplus.
The consolidated 1914 Nigerian budget abolished the separate Treasuries, opened a single 'Nigeria Account' at the Bank of British West Africa (precursor to First Bank), and established the South-to-North fiscal transfer that has never been substantially reversed. The Royal Niger Company's 1899 mineral-royalty obligation (50% of all northern minerals for 99 years) was inherited by the unified budget — see the 1899 RNC entry.