The Bank of British West Africa in Lagos occupied a pivotal place in the transformation of Marina from a colonial waterfront into one of Nigeria’s most important commercial and financial districts. An early twentieth-century view of Marina, dating from around 1910, captures a Lagos in transition: substantial commercial buildings faced the waterfront, transport infrastructure crossed the district, and banking was becoming increasingly connected to government finance, shipping and international trade.
The scene belongs to a formative period in the history of modern commercial banking in Nigeria. By then, the Bank of British West Africa, commonly known as BBWA, had been operating for more than a decade. Its growth was closely tied to Lagos’s emergence as the principal commercial centre of Britain’s territories in what would later become Nigeria.
The bank’s story began during an earlier phase of commercial banking development in Lagos.
Banking Before BBWA
In the early 1890s, Alfred Lewis Jones, the Liverpool shipping magnate associated with Elder Dempster, and George William Neville, an Elder Dempster representative on the West African coast, were involved in efforts to establish viable banking services in Lagos.
The African Banking Corporation took over an existing Elder Dempster banking operation in Lagos in 1892. When the corporation later withdrew, Jones and his associates reorganised the banking business.
The Bank of British West Africa was formally incorporated in Britain in 1894. Its head office was in Liverpool, while Lagos became one of the most important centres of its West African operations.
The development was significant. Lagos already possessed indigenous systems of credit, exchange and commerce, while BBWA represented a corporate banking institution connected directly to British finance, colonial administration and international trade.
Its establishment marked an important stage in the expansion of European-style commercial banking within the colonial economy.
Currency, Government and Colonial Banking Power
BBWA’s influence extended beyond receiving deposits and financing commercial transactions.
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Before the establishment of the West African Currency Board, the bank played an important role in distributing British currency in West Africa. The Bank of British West Africa handled currency distribution until 1912, when the West African Currency Board assumed responsibility for issuing currency across Britain’s West African territories.
This position placed the bank close to the monetary machinery of colonial government.
Currency became increasingly important as colonial authorities expanded taxation, salaried employment and commercial exchange. European trading companies needed reliable financial services, while shipping firms required mechanisms for transferring funds between West Africa and Britain.
BBWA benefited from this environment and developed relationships with government departments, European businesses and merchants engaged in the export economy.
The bank also extended some credit to African traders. Such lending occasionally strengthened African merchants competing with established European commercial interests.
BBWA was firmly embedded in Britain’s imperial commercial system, but some of its financial activities also opened opportunities for African entrepreneurs operating within that economy.
The Bank of British West Africa in Lagos Marina
Marina was a natural location for the growing bank.
The waterfront formed part of Lagos’s commercial gateway. Shipping companies, trading houses, colonial offices and warehouses clustered around areas connected to the harbour. Goods arriving by sea entered commercial networks extending inland, while agricultural exports moved towards the coast and international markets.
Banking fitted naturally into this landscape.
Financial institutions served merchants involved in import and export trade, government departments collecting revenues, shipping companies transferring funds and individuals participating in the expanding cash economy.
The Bank of British West Africa in Lagos was therefore more than an isolated building on the waterfront. It formed part of a wider commercial system linking Lagos with Britain and other parts of West Africa.
Marina gradually became synonymous with corporate and financial activity, a reputation that endured long after the colonial era.
Steam Tramways and a Changing Lagos
Transport infrastructure was another important feature of early twentieth-century Lagos.
The Lagos Steam Tramway operated from 1902 to 1933 and became part of the changing physical organisation of the colonial city.
The tramway connected commercial areas on Lagos Island with the railway terminus at Iddo. This connection became increasingly important as the railway opened routes between Lagos and communities in the Nigerian interior.
Passengers, traders and merchandise arriving at the railway terminus could continue towards Lagos Island, while goods destined for export moved towards the harbour and commercial waterfront.
The tramway served commercial, administrative and urban needs at a time when Lagos was undergoing rapid physical transformation.
Railways, tramways, shipping facilities, roads, government offices and substantial commercial buildings were reshaping the city.
Banking developed alongside them.
New Banking Competition Arrives in Lagos
Before the First World War, BBWA faced competition from the Anglo-African Bank, established in 1899 and connected with the Royal Niger Company. The institution later became the Bank of Nigeria.
In 1912, BBWA acquired the Bank of Nigeria, strengthening its position in the Nigerian banking market.
A new competitor arrived five years later. The Colonial Bank opened its Lagos branch in 1917.
The Colonial Bank subsequently became part of Barclays Bank Dominion, Colonial and Overseas. Its Nigerian operation later became Barclays Bank of Nigeria and, after Nigerianisation, Union Bank of Nigeria.
The arrival of the Colonial Bank established a new competitive relationship that would influence banking across British West Africa for several decades.
Competition and Cooperation in Colonial Banking
BBWA and Barclays became the dominant British banking institutions across significant parts of colonial West Africa, but their relationship combined competition with extensive cooperation.
During the colonial period, the institutions coordinated aspects of pricing and placed limits on competition in certain banking products and services.
These arrangements protected profitability within relatively limited West African banking markets. Colonial administrations allowed the concentrated banking structure to continue even as customers and commercial interests expressed dissatisfaction with some banking conditions.
Large foreign-owned banks possessed significant advantages. They had access to international capital, established connections with British commerce and close relationships with colonial governments.
African entrepreneurs frequently faced greater difficulties obtaining formal credit than major European commercial organisations. Nevertheless, African merchants were not entirely excluded from the banking system, and some obtained financing from BBWA during the early decades of the institution.
Colonial banking therefore expanded modern financial infrastructure while concentrating much of the ownership and institutional power in foreign hands.
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From BBWA to the Bank of West Africa
The institution survived major political and economic changes.
In 1957, three years before Nigerian independence, the Bank of British West Africa changed its name to the Bank of West Africa. The new identity reflected an institution whose operations extended across several West African territories.
Nigeria became independent on 1 October 1960, bringing banking institutions into a rapidly changing political and economic environment.
Another major transformation followed during the mid-1960s.
In 1965, the Bank of West Africa merged with the Standard Bank. The institution subsequently became known as the Standard Bank of West Africa Limited.
The transformation placed the old BBWA banking business within a larger international banking organisation.
Nigerian Incorporation and the Shift in Ownership
The late 1960s and 1970s brought increasing Nigerian participation in major businesses operating within the country.
In 1969, the Nigerian operation was incorporated locally as Standard Bank of Nigeria Limited, following changes introduced under the Companies Decree of 1968.
Another milestone followed in March 1971, when the bank was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. At the time, 13 per cent of the bank’s share capital was placed with Nigerian investors.
The process of Nigerianisation continued during the 1970s as government policy sought greater indigenous participation in important sectors of the economy.
Standard Chartered’s interest in Standard Bank Nigeria was eventually reduced to 38 per cent, leaving it as a minority shareholder.
In 1979, the institution adopted one of the most familiar names in Nigerian financial history: First Bank of Nigeria Limited.
Standard Chartered remained a shareholder until 1996. The ownership of the bank therefore changed progressively during the decades following Nigerian independence.
From First Bank of Nigeria to FirstBank
The institution continued to evolve after 1979.
In 1991, it became First Bank of Nigeria Plc.
Another major corporate restructuring took place in 2012, separating the commercial banking operation from the wider group of financial businesses associated with FirstBank.
The commercial bank became First Bank of Nigeria Limited, while FBN Holdings Plc became the listed holding company for the group.
In 2025, FBN Holdings Plc changed its name to First HoldCo Plc.
Through these transformations, FirstBank retained a remarkable historical connection with Lagos Marina.
Its name, ownership structure, regulatory environment and technology changed profoundly, but its institutional lineage stretches back to the Bank of British West Africa established in 1894.
Conclusion
The history of the Bank of British West Africa in Lagos offers a window into the larger transformation of the city.
Its emergence reflected the growing importance of international shipping, colonial government, currency circulation and export commerce during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its position on Marina placed banking alongside the commercial infrastructure connecting Lagos with both the Nigerian interior and overseas markets.
The bank also embodied the complexities of colonial economic development. It helped establish enduring financial institutions and payment systems while operating within an imperial structure dominated by foreign ownership and concentrated corporate power.
The arrival of competitors, cooperation between major banks, Nigerian independence, indigenisation and successive changes in ownership gradually transformed that system.
What began in 1894 as the Bank of British West Africa ultimately became part of one of Nigeria’s longest-surviving corporate institutions.
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Early images of Marina therefore record more than streets, trees, transport infrastructure and colonial buildings. They capture a city becoming a major financial centre and an institution beginning a journey that would extend across more than a century of Nigerian economic history.
Author’s Note
The history of the Bank of British West Africa demonstrates how closely the development of modern Lagos was tied to commerce, transportation, government and finance. BBWA emerged within the structures of British colonial rule, yet the institution survived the end of empire, Nigerian independence, indigenisation and repeated corporate transformation. Its continuing connection with Marina provides a remarkable example of institutional continuity and shows how institutions established during the colonial period could be reshaped by the political, economic and social changes of independent Nigeria.
References
Uche, Chibuike Ugochukwu. “Foreign Banks, Africans, and Credit in Colonial Nigeria, c. 1890–1912.” The Economic History Review, Vol. 52, No. 4, 1999, pp. 669–691.
Austin, Gareth, and Chibuike Ugochukwu Uche. “Collusion and Competition in Colonial Economies: Banking in British West Africa, 1916–1960.” Business History Review, Vol. 81, No. 1, 2007, pp. 1–26.
Bigon, Liora. “Tracking Ethno-Cultural Differences: The Lagos Steam Tramway, 1902–1933.” Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 33, No. 3, 2007, pp. 596–618.
Central Bank of Nigeria. “History of Nigerian Currency.” Central Bank of Nigeria historical records.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited. “Our History.” FirstBank institutional history.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited. “1894–1903: The First Decade of Banking.” FirstBank 130th Anniversary historical records.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited. “1954–1963.” FirstBank 130th Anniversary historical records.
Barclays Group Archives. “Barclays Bank of Nigeria Limited/Union Bank Nigeria.” Barclays historical archive.
Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria. “About Us.” Institutional history of Standard Bank and Standard Chartered operations in Nigeria.
Nigerian Exchange Limited. First HoldCo Plc corporate records.
