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Government and the Decline of the Nigerian Oil-Palm Export Industry, 1919–1939*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

David Meredith
David Meredith
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales
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Extract

Between 1900 and 1925 the British Government evolved a policy concerning agricultural development in West Africa by which expatriate-owned plantations, especially for oil palms, were excluded. This prohibition created as many problems as it solved, for the Nigerian Government in particular faced the problem of competition in the international palm-oil and kernel market from plantations in South-east Asia and the Belgian Congo. In the 1920s the Nigerian Government went to considerable effort to entice British capitalists to invest in palm-oil processing (but not production), but to no avail. In the 1930s the Government concentrated on trying to rehabilitate the oil-palm industry by encouraging the establishment of small, native-owned plantations, improving native methods of oil extraction and controlling the quality of palm-oil and kernel exports. This policy was beset with difficulties of finance, inadequate research and the effects on land tenure systems. It failed, and the Nigerian palm-oil export industry lost its place in the world market.

British trusteeship does not appear to have been a positive policy as far as economic development was concerned. It created a dilemma which the colonial authorities were not equipped to solve in the economic and political context of the inter-war period.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , July 1984 , pp. 311 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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36 PRO: Thompson to Secretary of State, 18 Oct. 1929, C.O. 583/168/692/29. Nigerian Products made their application in Oct. 1928 and in Feb. 1929 were told that the scheme could not apply to one firm only. In June the new owners of the African and Eastern Trading Corporation, the United Africa Company, threatened to close the mill if the Nigerian Government would not subsidize its operations. It agreed to do so under the terms of the 1929 scheme for five years in July 1930. See C.O. 583/170/718/30.

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107 NNA: Cameron to Secretary of State, 21 Feb. 1935, CSO/26/1126/29777.

108 NNA: Secretary of State to Cameron, 28 Feb. 1935, CSO/26/1126/29777.

109 NNA: Secretary of Southern Provinces to Colonial Secretary, 25 Jan. 1939, CSO/26/516/17696.

110 Ibid.

111 Sir Arthur Richards, Governor of Nigeria, wrote to the Secretary of State, 16 Oct. 1945, recommending the establishment of a ‘comprehensive collective system of marketing covering all palm products. This I envisage on lines somewhat similar to the proposals contained in the Cocoa White Paper and it will, I submit, be the only means by which the producer can be assured of receiving the full value of his labours’, NNA:CSO/26/276/43683. Usoro, , The Nigerian Palm Oil IndustryGoogle Scholar, chap. 6, contains a full discussion of post-war developments.

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114 NNA: E. Melville (Colonial Office) to G. Beresford-Stooke, Officer administering the Government of Nigeria, 28 Nov. 1947, CSO/26/276/43683.

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