Banking developments in pre-independence Nigeria: A study in regulation, control and politics.

This research is exploratory and is intended to help us understand the diverse interests and forces that helped shape various developments in the Nigerian banking industry, during the pre-independence era. The study investigates the activities of colonial banks in British Nigeria. Emphasis is placed on the dealings between these colonial banks and the Africans and the claim, by the Africans, that these foreign institutions were unhelpful to them. The motives and activities of the indigenous banks, subsequently established by the Africans, are also examined. Furthermore, the study investigates the different modes of bank regulation while Nigeria was a British Colony, studying the extent to which bank regulation in Nigeria has been influenced by that in other countries, and examining the complex role of banking sector regulation in a developing economy where banks have often been used overtly as instruments of political policy. Special emphasis is placed on the forces that helped shape the law and enforcement of banking regulation and the structure of the emergent regulatory institution. This research makes a contribution in a number of areas: (1) to our understanding of how banking regulation operates in a highly politicised environment (2) to our knowledge of the diffusion of banking practices and ideas and the significance of political control and social contact to the diffusion process and (3) to our appreciation of the forces shaping banking regulation over a long period

Collusion and competition in colonial economies: banking in British West Africa, 1916-1960

This article examines the collusion between the only two major banks to operate in British West Africa for most of the colonial period after 1916, Barclays and the Bank of British West Africa. The companies’ records reveal that the alliance was more far-reaching than has previously been shown, escalating to include not only comprehensive price-fixing but also restrictions on the products offered. The article considers the reactions of African and European customers and the colonial governments, and analyzes the motives that sustained the collusion for so long and the political circumstances that permitted it. The arrangement was partly a defensive response to a perception that the market was too small for full rivalry, but there was a rent-seeking element too. Finally, the article explores the implications of the bank alliance for the broader economies, reflecting on the relation between the security that the banks achieved through their agreements and their very cautious lending policies