First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) is a Nigerian multinational bank and financial services company headquartered in Lagos Nigeria.FirstBank commenced business in 1894 in what was then the British controlled areas, as the Bank of British West Africa. The bank originally served British shipping and trading agencies in Nigeria. The founder, Alfred Lewis Jones, was a shipping magnate who originally had a monopoly on importing silver currency into West Africa through his Elder Dempster shipping company.