Financing Nigeria’s Colonial Administration: A Comparative Study of its Revenue and Expenditure Profiles, 1940 – 1960

Abstract

This study attempts to show how colonial treasury and fiscal plannerscreated and sustained the policy of balance/surplus budget from 1940 to1960 in Nigeria. The study places the fiscal operations of the government incolonial Nigeria during the period in historical perspective and offers an analysis of the structure and relationships of revenue and expenditure of thegovernment within the context of a dependent economy. The approachadopted is at once historical and analytical showing how colonial fiscalpolicies of deliberate diminution of public expenditure helped to sustain atrend in fiscal balance even when that affected investment in the criticalareas of infrastructure development and promoted an expenditureorientation that favoured the recurrent at the expense of the capital budget.