DO YOU KNOW THE BRITISH POUNDS WAS THE FIAT CURRENCY WE USED IN NIGERIA?

THE BRITISH POUNDS WAS ONCE THE CURRENCY WE USED IN NIGERIA.

Read on to know how the British Pounds was our legal tender in Nigeria and why it was removed.

During the First World War, Nigeria became an extractive economy for the British, this means Nigeria was exporting all the their raw materials and food to the British to help them win their war.

In other to make export easier the British needed workers such as Freight Haulers, Dock Workers, Rail Builder and so on. They relied on forced labour to make this happen but the people would just run and join the army because it was paying rather than then free-work.

So the solution they came up with was to get rid of the current currency, Cowry(1904) Manilla (1901) and the Trade by Barter system 

This was when they introduced the British pound

They made it so that they started collecting taxes in cash, this made the people to apply for the jobs the provided so they could get paid in cash, pay their taxes and these jobs were not even paying well, no promotion, no incentive

Few Nigerians that had primary school education were able to get jobs such as teachers, Clerks. White Collar Jobs were the ones available and the were available in the City. This made lots of people to relocate and settle down in the City

The Population of Lagos was 42,000 by 1901 and it jumped to 126,000 by 1931 and it has been rising since then 

The British Pounds was later removed with the introduction of Naira in 1973, 1st January 1973.