Colonial1912· £1 = 20s = 240d· Chapter I · Money
Administered by the West African Currency Board (Lagos). Sterling parity. Circulated in Nigeria, Ghana (Gold Coast), Sierra Leone, The Gambia.
6 November 1912 — 1959
Notes and silver coin issued by the West African Currency Board in London, at full sterling parity.
What it bought
A labourer on the Lagos–Kano railway earned about £18 a year in 1914.
Worth today
£1 of 1914 ≈ ₦1.4m in 2026 money, taking Bank of England CPI to 1973 and Nigerian CPI after.
The West African Currency Board was established by the Colonial Office on 6 November 1912 and headquartered in London with a regional office in Lagos. WACB notes (£1, 10/-) and silver coins circulated across British West Africa at full sterling parity. The Board's reserves were held in London gilts.
What it cost — political & economic reality
Nigeria in 1912: who was in charge, the cabinet of the day, the GDP, and the crises that defined the period.
British colonial administration
1900–1960
National reality
Amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates (1914) under indirect rule. Marketing boards extracted cocoa, palm oil and groundnut surpluses; political agitation built through the press and the trade union movement.
Crises of the period
GDP (World Bank)
Pre-independence; no national accounts series
Cabinet (selected portfolios)
Full ministerial roster being compiled.
Government administered by Governors-General and Residents. The first indigenous federal ministers were appointed under the 1954 Lyttelton Constitution.
Source · Toyin Falola, A History of Nigeria (CUP, 2008)
Tier 1 · primary
Courts. Gazettes. National archives.
Tier 2 · corroborating
OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.
Tier 4 · tertiary, flagged
Wikipedia only where primary is pending. Always labelled.