Bank of England vs the IBRD: Did the Nigerian Colony Deserve a Central Bank?

This paper attempts to show how the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development aided the establishment of a central bank in the British Nigerian colony against the wishes of the Bank of England. It argues that the main reason for the demand by nationalists for a central bank was to save the poorly staffed and poorly capitalized indigenous banks threatened by regulation. A Bank of England “expert” in 1952, however, advised against such a bank on “technical grounds.” An IBRD Economic Mission to the Colony the following year, advised to the contrary and again opened up the debate. Various overt and covert attempts by the Bank of England to get the IBRD to change its mind achieved little result.