The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says it is still waiting for the federal government to release the money for the 2027 general elections.
INEC said it needs N873.78 billion in total for the elections. Most of the money will go to running the elections, buying equipment, and getting new technology. The commission said that even though the money has not come yet, it is still within the time allowed by law.
The Electoral Act of 2026 says the federal government must give INEC all election funds at least six months before the election.
Malam Mohammed Haruna, INEC’s National Commissioner for Voter Education and Publicity, said this at a meeting in Abuja. The meeting was put together by the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa and Legis360.
He said that while INEC is waiting for the money, it has started early work to buy new election materials. This includes replacing Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines that were lost or damaged in past elections.
“Our director of ICT just returned from China regarding procurement because not all the BVAS devices used during the last general elections were recovered,” Haruna said. “Orders need to be placed, and these things take time.”
Some people have said the N800 billion plus budget is too high. Haruna said elections in Nigeria are actually cheaper than in many other countries. He said the cost is high because INEC buys most of its materials from other countries, and the economy is unstable.
“This N800 billion plus sounds humongous, but when you calculate the average cost per voter, it is about six dollars, which is reasonable for a country such as Nigeria,” Haruna noted.
“People forget that virtually everything we use is imported. The BVAS devices and a lot of other election materials are imported. Exchange rate fluctuations also affect these costs.”
The commissioner also said that late and conflicting court orders are a big problem for planning elections. He used the recent Ekiti governorship election as an example.
He explained that when courts give orders 24 to 48 hours before an election, INEC must quickly change its software and update result sheets to include new political parties.
“When a court gives a last-minute injunction to include parties like the National Democratic Congress and the African Democratic Congress, we are forced to reconfigure the software and update physical materials instantly,” Haruna said. “This leaves very little room to test the systems extensively, though we still manage to achieve substantial compliance with the rules.”
To avoid the technical problems that happened with the result viewing portal in the 2023 presidential election, Haruna said INEC will run mock presidential elections to test its technology. He also said INEC had a 98 percent accreditation rate with BVAS machines in the Ekiti election, but vote buying is still a serious problem.
