British financial administration in Nigeria, 1900-1960

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Periodical article

Title:	British financial administration in Nigeria, 1900-1960
Author:	Lawal, Adebayo A.
Year:	1998
Periodical:	The Nigerian Journal of Economic History
Issue:	1
Pages:	104-128
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Great Britain
Subjects:	colonialism finance fiscal policy revenue allocation
Abstract:	The history of British financial administration in Nigeria from 1900 to 1960 indicates that the miniature of revenue allocation politics in Nigeria was introduced by British administrators prior to amalgamation in 1914 and underlay the fiscal federalism inherited by Nigerian politicians at independence in 1960. The prevailing controversy in Nigeria today over revenue allocation or the revenue sharing formula between the thirty states and the central government is reminiscent of what happened in the period 1900-1912 between the British personnel in the rival protectorates of the South and the North. From 1926/1927 onwards, a new financial policy was enforced throughout Nigeria whereby the northern and southern provinces and Lagos colony were integrated into a single Nigerian fiscal system including the central government. The new fiscal policy ushered in the evolution of allocation of funds according to needs. Allocation of revenue according to the present practice started in 1948, when constitutional provisions were spelled out to this end. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]