History of West Africa more states. Early human settlers arrived in West Africa around 12,000 BCE. In the fifth millennium, as the ancestors of modern West Africans began entering the area, the development of sedentary farming began to take place in West Africa. The Iron industry, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons, appeared in Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BCE, and by 400 BCE, contact had been made with the Mediterranean civilizations, and a regular trade included exporting gold, cotton, metal, and leather in exchange for copper, horses, salt, textiles, and beads. Culture developed further with the Nok culture (1000 BCE to
Costain West Africa Costain West Africa Costain West Africa is a building and civil engineering firm founded in Nigeria in 1948. The company was the first building and civil engineering firm to listed on the stock exchange,work orders executed by the firm include construction of the 140 meter high NECOM house, constructed over loose sands with a shallow raft foundation design and University College Teaching Hospital, Ibadan. One of the oldest civil engineering and building companies established in Nigeria, from 1950 to the end of the twentieth century, it executed highway, roads, building and civil works projects both in private and public sectors.