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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Like most modern institutions in the developing countries, the financial institution of banks and banking is foreign and, to begin with, banking was introduced in the last decade of the 19th century for the benefit of the early European mercantile houses in Nigeria. The first bank to appear on the Nigerian scene was the Bank of British West Africa (later known as the Bank of West Africa but now as the Standard Bank of West Africa) having been established in 1894, and it was the only bank operating in Nigeria until 1917, when the Colonial Bank, which later became part of the Barclays Bank D.C.O. in 1925, was established.1 The first indigenous bank was the National Bank of Nigeria founded in 1933.2
1 C. V. Brown, The Nigerian banking system, 1966, p. 23.
2 The National Bank was taken over by the Western Nigeria Marketing Board in 1955.
3 75% of all commercial bank loans and advances were granted by the expatriate banks—see “The Maturity and Security Patterns of Commercial Bank loans and Advances 1963–68 Central Bank of Nigeria”, Economic and Finance Review Vol. 7 No. 1 June 1969.
4 In 1943, an old man, reputed to be very wealthy in Ife, died. But before his death he indicated to his eldest son where he had kept his money. On his death the son and other children dug up their father's money only to find that more than half of over £2000 sterling was rusty and could not be spent.
5 See Mather, Banker and customer relationship and the accounts of personal customers, 1963.
6 Lord Chorley on Law of Banking etc.
page 67 note 1 Paton, Report on Banking in Nigeria 1958.
page 67 note 2 Cap. 15, Laws of the Federation.
page 67 note 3 See C. V. Brown, op. cit. p. 31. Indeed within two years of the enactment of the Banking Ordinance—many mushroom bankers went into liquidation.
page 67 note 4 Cap. 19 Laws of the Federation. (See Appendix XI.)
page 67 note 5 Banking Decree, 1969.
page 67 note 6 Ibid.
page 67 note 7 The fact that an expatriate company is required by Chapter X of the 1968 Companies Decree to incorporate in Nigeria does not make that company an indigenous company. The test of control is applied to determine whether the company is foreign or indigenous; thus where the Nigerian shareholders and Directors are foreign, that company will be deemed to be a foreign company.
page 67 note 8 See s. 40 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 1958, Cap. 38 and also s. 12 of the Banking Decree, 1969.
page 67 note 9 E.g., the Nigerian Farmers and Commercial Bank, Pan Nigeria Bank, Premier Bank, Onward Nigerian Bank etc.
page 68 note 1 Banking Decree, 1969, see n. 13, above.
page 68 note 2 Ibid, see n. 20, below.
page 68 note 3 See n. 21, below.
page 68 note 4 Recently, attempts have been made to make changes in the management of the National Bank.
page 68 note 5 S. 22, Banking Decree, 1969.
page 68 note 6 Ibid, s. 22 (b). It must have been under this section that the Central Bank assumed control of the African Continental Bank and appointed one of its officers as the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
page 68 note 7 S. 23.
page 68 note 8 S. 23 (3).
page 69 note 1 The new Revenue Court which began sitting November, 1973, is charged with jurisdiction over banking, taxation and other matters.
page 69 note 2 S. 25.
page 69 note 3 E.g., the oldest indigenous bank, the National Bank of Nigeria, established in 1933, had been having management problems for some time. This has led to the appointment of an expatriate managing Director, Mr. Court who has been charged with the duty of reorganising the bank. It has recently, been announced also that ₦84 million is being owed to the National Bank.
page 69 note 4 S. 41 of the Banking Decree, 1969.
page 70 note 1 C. V. Brown, The Nigerian banking system 1966 p. 83, footnote 2, where the author an example of how big companies manage to avoid transfer charges by making offsetting arrangements between themselves.
page 70 note 1 Press release April 27th, 1972.
page 70 note 2 The National Bank of Nigeria Limited; The United Bank for Africa; The International Bank for West Africa.
page 70 note 3 C. V. Brown, op. cit., p. 83.
page 70 note 4 No. 1 of 1969.
page 71 note 1 Banking (Amendment) Decree, 1972, no. 45 s. 11A.
page 71 note 2 The National Bank was alleged to have granted loans to the tune of 84 million Naira, while the Central Bank had to assume control of the African Continental Bank. Both of them are State Governments' sponsored Banks.
page 71 note 3 In the course of my interview with the legal officer at the National Bank, he told me of a situation where the Head office approved a loan of £10000 (₦20000) and the local branch manager at Apapa allowed the customer to draw up to £23000 (₦46000). This led to the automatic removal from service of the manager.
page 71 note 4 Government Notice No. 1253 of August 9th, 1973 Gazette.
page 71 note 5 This is broken down into giving loans to credit and financial institutions, government, personal and professional etc.
page 72 note 1 The Western Region took over the National Bank and Agbonmagbe Bank (now Wema Bank) and the Eastern Region also took over the African Continental Bank.
page 72 note 2 See Nwankwo—“Government Participation in Nigerian Banking”, in New Dimensions in Nigerian Banking p. 36, being a series of nine Talks of the Week broadcast over Nigerian Radio in 1973.
page 72 note 3 Ibid., “Central Bank of Nigeria Economic and Financial Review”, June 1969, pp. 5–17.
page 72 note 4 Ibid., p. 8.
page 72 note 5 The Federal Government has so far taken 40% equity interest in three expatriate Banks.
