The ndependent National Electoral Commissi INEC,on Thursday admitted that building a self-sustaining infrastructure for nationwide electronic transmission of election results would be expensive but necessary to guarantee accountability.
This was disclosed by the INEC chairman, tProfessor Joash Amupitan during the presentation of the commission’s proposed ₦873.78 billion budget for the conduct of the 2027 general elections before the Joint Committee of the National Assembly on Electoral Matters. Responding to concerns about INEC’s capacity to deploy electronic transmission nationwide, the INEC boss said the commission currently relies on external service providers.
“We do not even have a network of our own. Assuming we control the network system and are not dictated to by primary and secondary providers, then INEC should be held 100 percent responsible for whatever happens. But, the cost of establishing such infrastructure is enormous,” he said.
He insisted that early and adequate funding was critical to safeguarding Nigeria’s democracy, especially as the country moves deeper into technology-driven electoral processes. If you want to predict the future, it is necessary to create it early. Preparation for the 2027 election has already started,” Amupitan told lawmakers.
He noted that the Electoral Act 2022 mandates that election funding be appropriated 360 days before polling day to avert operational crises. “The wisdom of the National Assembly in making provision 360 days before the election date is to ensure that we do not run into avoidable crises,” he added.
Amupitan explained that the proposed ₦873,778,401,602.08 budget is structured under four broad components:
Election operations cost – ₦375.75bn
Election administrative cost – ₦92.31bn
Election technology cost – ₦209.21bn
Election capital cost – ₦154.90bn
A miscellaneous provision of ₦41.01bn brings the total to ₦873.78bn.
He said the capital allocation appears higher because several items omitted from previous budgets were now captured in the 2027 framework.
