Many Nigerians are now spending long hours in banks, seeking to link their National Identification Number (NIN) to their bank accounts.

This development followed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive to banks to restrict all Tier 1 bank accounts without BVN or NIN by March 1.

Some bank customers who spoke Tuesday in Ibadan considered the decision unnecessary, as most account owners already had Bank Verification Numbers (BVN).

While some banks have released self-service guidelines for customers to link their NIN and BVN to their bank accounts, others have yet to do so.

A bank customer, Anike Adewoye, said the development was a waste of time and resources, as many Nigerians already had BVN linked to their NIN.

“It is a waste of time and resources as well as a mere duplication of efforts. It is absolutely unnecessary. Worse still, Nigerians were not informed about the need to link their NIN to BVN until last week. This is unacceptable,” Ms Adewoye said.

Another bank customer, Yinka Olanrenwaju, said he was denied a transaction on his account when he visited his bank on Monday.

Mr Olanrewaju said he was asked to link his NIN to his account before he could make deposits or withdrawals.

“When I got to the customer service, I was directed to join those on the queue to link their NIN with their bank accounts. I left in frustration, as I could not get it done. The attendant requested my NIN slip, even after I had provided the number from where I wrote it,” he said.

There was a crowd at the NIMC office in Ibadan Tuesday trying to obtain their NIN to link it with their bank accounts or use it for other purposes.

One of them, Olaniyi Olawuyi, said he had not started the process because he feared going to the bank to queue might be a big challenge.

Mr Olawuyi said it would be better if banks could provide other means for their customers to link their NIN accounts without physically being present at the banks.

A bank official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that although some banks had devised other means of linking NIN to the accounts for their customers to reduce traffic in the banks, others had yet to do so.

“You will have to come to the bank to get it done or go through your account officers,” she said.

(NAN)