A HISTORY OF MODERN CURRENCY IN THE FORMER SOKOTO PROVINCE, 1903-2015

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines the history of modern currency in the former Sokoto Province. It is an aspect of monetary history, which is one of the themes of history that suffers serious neglect from scholars. Contrary to the assumption of Eurocentric scholars that prior to Africans’ contact with the Europeans, trade relations were conducted essentially by barter, the study discovered that the people in the study area have made extensive use of cowries and other forms of pre-colonial currecies such as slaves and cloths, as medium of exchange and means of payments both at local and regional levels. However with the arrival of the Europeans and subsequent imposition of the British administration on the people of the region, British coins were introduced and gradually they became the only medium of exchange. As from 1916 the West African Currency Board (WACB) that was established in 1912 started the issue of currency notes for the entire British West African territories; and since then the various denominations of the notes were used in different parts of Nigeria (including the study area) as medium of exchange until in 1959 when as part of preparation for Nigeria’s independence, the notes were replaced with the ones issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). It has also been discovered that from 1960 to date, socio-economic and political developments such as attainment of republican status, civil war, oil boom, economic recession of the early 1980s and increasing oil revenues of the early 1990s and 2000s were the reasons advanced by successive governments in Nigeria for causing change of the currency notes and coins in the study area in particular and in the country in general. Government policies have equally impacted both positively and negatively on the values of Nigeria’s currency and monetary system as a whole. The most recent development in the country’s monetary profile is cashless policy, which is regarded in this study as a revived effort by the western and capitalist imperialists to integrate the Nigeria’s financial sector into their larger economic system. However, if effectively xiv implemented in country, it would certainly be a watershed in the history of use of cash. This study concludes that the failure to effectively commence the policy nationwide by 1st July, 2015, was not unconnected with inadequate infrastructural facilities for its implementation and lack of awareness about the policy among substantial number of Nigeria’s population.