Poor agronomic practice like time of N application is one of the causes of low productivity of maize. Time of N application at appropriate crop growth stage increase the nitrogen use efficiency by reducing the menace of losses through denitrification, immobilization and leaching. A field experiment was conducted during 2019/2020 cropping season to determine the effect of time of nitrogen fertilizer application on growth, yield and yield components of maize variety in mecha district, northwest Ethiopia. The experiment consisted of two variety (BH-660 and BH-540) and eight application times (1/2 at sowing (p) + 1/2 at knee height (kh) (control), 1/2 S + 1/2 near tasseling (nt), 1/3 S + 1/3 kh + 1/3 nt, 1/3 S + 2/3 kh, 1/3 S + 2/3nt, 1/4 S + 2/4 kh + 1/4 nt, 1/4 S + 3/4 kh, and 1/4 S +3/4 nt) laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The same rate of nitrogen, 128 kg N ha-1, was used in all the cases. The data was analyzed using standard analysis of variance (ANOVA) procedures on the appropriate statistical analysis software using SAS version 9.0. Results obtained indicated that the highest grain yield (7524.69 kg ha-1) was recorded when nitrogen was applied in three splits i.e. 1/3rd at sowing,1/3rd at knee height and 1/3rd at near tasseling stage. The application time difference gave a yield advantage of 614.2 kg ha-1 over the commonly practiced 1/2 at sowing + 1/2 at knee height application. Nitrogen application of 1/3rd at sowing, 1/3rd at knee height and 1/3rd at near tasseling stage in BH-660 variety was found to produce the highest yield (7626.54 kg ha-1) than BH-540 variety with the yield advatage of 1234.99 kg ha-1. The maximum economic benefit (65655.61Birr ha-1) and high acceptable marginal rate of return (129.46) were obtained when applying the recommended nitrogen in three splits i.e. 1/3rd at planting, 1/3rd at knee height and 1/3rd at near tasseling stage with BH 660 maize variety which can be recommended for the study area. However, as the experiment is done only for one year and location, it needs to be repeated over seasons and locations so as to arrive at a dependable recommendation.