Published in 1945 and approved for implementation 1 April 1946, the Ten-Year Plan of Development and Welfare for Nigeria was the first long-range public-investment programme for the colony. Total envelope: ₤55 million over ten years (1946–1956), of which ₤23 million was grant-in-aid from the UK under the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts 1940 and 1945, and ₤32 million from Nigerian Government revenue and loan-finance.
Key allocations: railways and harbours (₤14.7m), public works and roads (₤8.1m), education (₤7.2m), medical and health (₤6.5m), agriculture (₤3.9m), water supplies (₤2.4m), electricity supply — the foundation of ECN (₤2.1m).
The plan was substantially revised in 1951 after the new Macpherson Constitution gave the regions fiscal autonomy. It is the direct fiscal ancestor of the First National Development Plan 1962–68, the Second (1970–74), and every subsequent national plan. The Iva Valley massacre of 18 November 1949 occurred against the backdrop of this plan's implementation, when colonial police killed 21 striking Enugu coal miners demanding wage parity under the new development envelope (see The Iva Valley massacre).