1899Acquisition
Niger Coast and Royal Niger Company assets purchased
The British Crown bought out the Royal Niger Company's charter for £865,000 — the legal birth of what would become Nigeria.
£865,000
The Ledger, in chronological order
10 entries · revised monthly1914Amalgamation
Northern and Southern Protectorates unified
Lugard's amalgamation. A single colonial budget for the first time; the customs receipts of Lagos subsidising the North.
£4.4m revenue
1956Oil
First commercial oil discovery at Oloibiri
Shell-BP strikes oil in Bayelsa. The fiscal architecture of the federation begins its slow inversion away from agriculture.
5,100 bbl/day
1970Reconstruction
Post-war Second National Development Plan
₦3 billion plan. Reconstruction, rehabilitation, reconciliation — funded by an oil boom that had just begun.
₦3 billion
1995Lost
Abacha-era foreign reserves
Independent reconstructions place laundered sums at roughly $5 billion across Swiss, Jersey, Liechtenstein and London accounts.
≈ $5 billion
1999Recovery
Abacha Family Funds: first repatriation tranche
The long, contested return — Switzerland, Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, the United States, the United Kingdom.
$1.2 billion (cumulative by 2020)
2012Subsidy
Fuel subsidy probe — House Resolution 79
House of Representatives ad-hoc committee finds ₦1.7 trillion paid for fuel not delivered between 2009 and 2011.
₦1.7 trillion
2014Missing
NNPC unremitted oil receipts (Sanusi disclosure)
Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi: $20 billion in oil sales unaccounted for. PWC audit later confirms $1.48 billion shortfall, with disputed methodology around the remainder.
$20 billion (claimed)
2023Deficit
Federal Budget deficit
Fiscal year deficit of ₦11.34 trillion — the largest in nominal naira terms in Nigerian history at the time of recording.
₦11.34 trillion
2024Budget
Appropriation Act, 2024
₦54.99 trillion budgeted. Debt service projected to exceed ₦8 trillion. The fiscal envelope is now larger than total federal revenue.
₦54.99 trillion
Methodology
Tier 1 · primary
Courts. Gazettes. National archives.
Tier 2 · corroborating
OCCRP. HRW. BudgIT. TheCable.
Redline
Wikipedia is never a source.