Nigerian financial institutions, including banks and fintech companies, have been quietly mandated to automatically generate and update Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) for their customers. This significant development will impact millions of account holders across the country, streamlining Nigeria's new unified tax system without requiring any direct action from individual customers.

An insider with direct knowledge of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) integration revealed that FIRS has developed specific API (Application Programming Interface) services for financial institutions. These APIs enable banks and fintechs to retrieve tax IDs in bulk by utilizing the National Identification Numbers (NINs) already stored in their customer databases. This automated bulk service is designed to be efficient, circumventing the logistical challenge of requiring millions of customers to individually obtain their tax IDs. For companies like Opay, Palmpay, and Kuda, with their vast user bases, this process ensures their users' tax IDs can be integrated seamlessly.

This initiative represents the practical rollout of Nigeria’s unified tax system at scale, distinguishing it from earlier clarifications that NINs are not tax IDs themselves, but rather tools for their generation. The system leverages existing Know Your Customer (KYC) information, specifically the NIN, to create a corresponding tax ID.

The automatic generation process is straightforward: If a customer provided their NIN when opening a bank account years ago, that NIN is now used by the bank to access the FIRS API. The bank sends the NIN along with basic verification details, and in return, receives a unique tax ID, which is then automatically added to the customer's account profile. This eliminates the need for customers to visit branches, fill forms, or make specific requests, making the process stress-free and completely free of charge for individuals and businesses.

This development also clarifies the recent wave of notifications from Nigerian banks requesting customers to update their tax information. While banks send these notifications, they possess the underlying capability to auto-populate the tax IDs themselves. Such requests might serve to ensure compliance or offer customers the option to verify information before it is automatically updated.

For the average Nigerian bank customer, this means that a tax ID field will soon appear populated in their banking app or profile, even if they never personally retrieved one from the FIRS website. It is not an additional burden or a new registration requirement; rather, it is the bank fulfilling its obligation to update records with the tax ID that was automatically created when the customer obtained their NIN.

Crucially, there is a fundamental distinction between a NIN and a tax ID. While the NIN serves as a primary identification tool, FIRS has established an entirely separate, 100% numeric tax identification system for both businesses and individuals. This system is seamlessly integrated with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) database. While a NIN is used to *generate* a tax ID, they are distinct identifiers. This approach addresses the historical problem of disparate state-level tax registrations by providing one consistent, national tax number.

Nigerians can also manually retrieve their tax ID by visiting taxid.firs.gov.ng, where they can input their NIN and basic verification details to instantly display their unique tax ID. This confirms that if an individual has a NIN, a tax ID has already been created for them within the system. The system only utilizes information already held by financial institutions, ensuring that banks are not accessing new data but rather using existing NIN records to retrieve corresponding tax IDs through an official, secure government API.