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The Nigerian Stock
Exchange was established in 1960 as the Lagos Stock Exchange. The
Exchange started operations in 1961 with 19 securities listed for
trading.

The first National
Development Plan (1962-1968) was launched. During this period,
investments in the country rose to about $45 million, with the
manufacturing sector was contributing 11 per cent to the GDP. Today, it
contributes only about 5 per cent.

On July 1, 1965, the first series of bank notes were replaced with new notes to commemorate the republic status of the country.

On 6 July 1967,
Civil war broke out due to the resolve of the Eastern part of the
country to secede to form Republic of Biafra. More than one million
people died in the war while oil production output was disrupted during
the period, leading to drop in Nigeria’s revenue.

In 1968, the
Central Bank of Nigeria issued a new set of bank notes to forestall the
usage of illegally withdrawn notes from the CBN branches in Enugu, Port
Harcourt and Benin during the civil war.

In 1971 Nigeria
joined OPEC and the oil boom, which began in 1973, elevated the country
to be one of the prominent members of the oil cartel.

The Nigerian
Enterprises Promotion Act was passed into law in 1972, was aimed at
stimulating entrepreneurial activity by Nigerians in the more modern
sectors.

1973 – CBN issued Naira notes replacing the Nigerian Pound

Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) was introduced in 1976 in order to enhance agricultural development and food security

In December 1977,
the Lagos Stock Exchange became The Nigerian Stock Exchange, with
branches established in some of the major commercial cities of the
country.

The Privatisation
and Commercialisation Act of 1988 put the country on the path of
creating efficiency in public enterprises and reducing the role of
government in the economy

In 1979, the N1, N5 and N10 notes had the portraits of three Nigerians – Alvan Ikoku, Tafawa Balewa and Herbert Macaulay.

Austerity measures
introduced by government of Shehu Shagari in 1982 to reduce government
expenditure and stimulate a private sector

Structural
Adjustment Programme by Ibrahim Babangida in June 1986 to restructure
and diversify the productive base of the economy so as to reduce
dependency on the oil sector and imports. SAP was one of the conditions
for accessing the IMF loan despite its rejection by Nigerians after an
intense national debate.

In order to
mitigate the negative impact of the SAP programme, the government
established the Urban Mass Transit Programme in 1988; People’s and
Community banks in 1989/90; Directorate of Food, Road and Rural
Infrastructure (DFRRI) in 1986; a reflationary budget package in 1988;
the 1991/1992 relief package for public sector officers; the reform of
the civil service; and Better Life for Rural Dwellers’ Programme in
1989.

The Nigeria Deposit
Insurance Corporation began operation in 1989 through the promulgation
of Decree No. 22 of 15th June 1988. Between 1991 and 1996, the NDIC had
taken over management and control of 24 distressed banks.

The N100 note, with
the portrait of Obafemi Awolowo was issued in December 1999, while the
N200 note, with the portrait of Ahmadu Bello, was issued in November
2000.

In 2003, the
government liberalized the telecommunications sector with the granting
of license to private operators of global system of mobile
telecommunications (GSM). This led to huge investment inflow in the
sector and the tremendous improvement in Nigeria’s teledensity. Today,
over 70 million Nigerian have access to telephone.

July 6, 2004,
Chukwuma Soludo, then Central Bank governor commenced consolidation of
banks with a December 31, 2005 deadline for banks to shore up their
minimum capital to N25 billion from the previous N2 billion.

This led to the reduction of the number of banks from 89 to 25.

In 2005, Nigeria paid $12 billion to the Paris Club of creditors in exchange for a debt forgiveness of over $32 billion.

On August 14, 2009,
Lamido Sanusi, the current CBN governor, injected N620 billion into
eight banks in the country following the negative impact of the global
financial crisis which resulted in the withdrawal of huge sums of
foreign capital out of the country.

Compiled by Stanley Oronsaye and Oluwaseyi Bangudu