The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has clarified recent misconceptions suggesting that Nigerian citizens must possess a Tax Identification Number (TIN) to own or operate a bank account, describing such claims as inaccurate and misleading.
Arabinrin Aderonke Atoyebi, Technical Assistant on Broadcast Media to the Executive Chairman of FIRS, explained that the nation’s tax system has evolved to integrate seamlessly with existing national registries, ensuring that every eligible individual or entity is automatically identifiable for tax purposes.
“The debate that one cannot operate a bank account without a TIN has gained traction in some quarters, but it is not true,” Atoyebi said.
She emphasised that TIN is a statutory tool designed to uniquely verify taxpayers—whether individuals, businesses, or associations—within the national tax ecosystem.
Under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, 2025, the FIRS has implemented a National Taxpayer Directory. The TIN is a 13-digit unique identifier that encodes critical information including the issuance year, registry source (National Identification Number for individuals, RC number for corporates), state of registration, and a cryptographic fragment for security, ending with a check digit.
