There was no consolidated 'Nigerian' budget before the Royal Niger Company. Each of the pre-colonial polities ran its own treasury under its own currency, and the conquest of Nigeria between 1879 and 1903 was, in fiscal terms, the absorption of these treasuries into a single sterling-denominated colonial account.
Sokoto Caliphate (1804–1903): The Caliphate ran an Islamic fisc — kharaj (land tax), jizya (non-Muslim poll tax), zakat (alms levy), and the gaisuwa tribute paid by emirs to Sokoto. Caliphate annual revenue at the 1850s peak is estimated by Murray Last and Sa'ad Abubakar at 100–250 million cowries plus substantial slave and cattle tribute — comparable in real terms to the contemporary Egyptian khedivate.
Bonny, Brass, Opobo, Calabar (Niger Delta city-states): Revenue came from comey — the tariff levied on every European trader entering the river. Bonny comey in the 1850s ran at roughly 16,000 manillas per ship plus a percentage of cargo; the Amanyanabo of Bonny's personal annual comey income was estimated by Consul Beecroft at £8,000–£12,000 — larger than the salary of any African colonial officer at the time. The 1869 Bonny–Opobo war was, at base, a war over comey rights.
Benin Kingdom: Palace customs (uzama tribute), Sapele/Ughoton river tolls, and ivory-and-rubber export duties paid to the Oba's court. The Iyase and Uwangue palace chiefs administered separate revenue streams. The 1897 Punitive Expedition extracted ~4,000 bronzes and ivories as direct capital seizure.
Oyo Empire & Yoruba states: Ishakole tribute (annual produce levy) from vassal towns to the Alaafin; ajele (resident commissioners) collected from satellites. The 1820s collapse of Oyo and the Kiriji War (1877–93) destroyed this fisc; Lagos and Ijebu customs (toll-gates on the interior trade) were the surviving fragments.
Aro Confederacy: Oracle fees at Ibini Ukpabi (Arochukwu); a share of every slave traded through Aro middlemen; protection levies on the 150+ Aro settlements across Igboland. The largest non-state fisc in pre-colonial West Africa.
Borno (Kanem–Borno): Trans-Saharan caravan dues at Kukawa and Yerwa, salt-and-natron royalties from Bilma, and Sefuwa/al-Kanemi tribute. Rabih's 1893 sack of Kukawa destroyed the central treasury.
These fiscs were not 'primitive' — they were the working public finances of polities ruling 10–20 million people. Their dissolution between 1879 and 1912 (charter-company tariffs → Northern/Southern Protectorate budgets → 1908 tax-in-coin → 1912 WACB sterling monopoly) is the monetary conquest of Nigeria — see the pivotal story.