Nigeria’s national voter register is nearing 100 million ahead of the 2027 general elections, following the registration of 10,772,421 new voters during the latest Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos. He also announced plans by the commission to introduce a real-time election readiness tracker to monitor preparations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Amupitan spoke during a two-day strategic operational workshop for INEC administrative secretaries organised by the commission.
According to a statement by INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, the readiness tracker will provide real-time information on logistics, the recruitment and training of ad hoc personnel, electoral technology and other preparations for the 2027 elections.
The statement said the system would use a standardised, Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template linked to the commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre dashboard and Election Project Plan.
Amupitan said INEC had previously lacked a dedicated and standardised system for tracking the operational duties of administrative secretaries across the country.
He explained that the new tracker would give Resident Electoral Commissioners, supervising national commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission and INEC headquarters “instant visibility” into each state’s level of preparedness.
The tracker will monitor areas such as the distribution of electoral materials, training of ad hoc personnel and overall readiness at state level.
According to Amupitan, the initiative is intended to shift INEC away from its traditional last-minute preparations by replacing “reactive panic with proactive management.”
10.7 million new registrants
The INEC chairman said the CVR exercise, carried out in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026, produced 10,772,421 new registrations.
He noted that the figures remained subject to verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System.
Amupitan said the National Register of Voters was now “approaching the 100 million mark” and reiterated INEC’s commitment to ensuring that eligible Nigerians were not denied the right to vote due to logistical challenges in distributing Permanent Voter Cards.
He identified CVR as one of five key operational areas being reviewed at the workshop.
The other areas, he said, include logistics and materials management, electoral technology, optimisation of ad hoc staff and financial compliance.
The chairman added that the readiness tracker would remain in use beyond the 2027 elections, serving as a permanent operational and onboarding framework for future administrative secretaries.
He said the commission was applying lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State governorship election, where he said effective logistics and functioning technology contributed to what INEC considered a transparent process.
“We are now working to replicate that standard nationally,” he said.
Amupitan said INEC had approximately six months to complete preparations for the 2027 general elections.
The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections are expected to take place on February 6, 2027.
The Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Ayobami Salami, described the workshop as timely and praised the European Union, through its Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria programme, for supporting the exercise.
The Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said the workshop was designed to ensure that INEC headquarters and state offices worked with a common Election Project Plan.
She said each state delegation was expected to leave the workshop with a logistics risk register, an ad hoc recruitment and deployment plan, as well as a three-month stakeholder engagement plan.
INEC begins six-zone readiness assessment
Meanwhile, Amupitan has warned that pressure on INEC ahead of the 2027 elections would be significant.
He made the remarks during a separate South-West zonal interactive meeting and readiness assessment in Lagos on Monday, which marked the start of a six-zone tour by the commission to assess its preparedness for the elections.
“The eyes of 200 million Nigerians, and the world, are fixed on us,” he said.
The meeting, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ikeja, formed part of a new approach to zonal election preparations. Amupitan said the strategy would go beyond the traditional model where headquarters directorates handled most preparatory activities.
He said INEC’s preparedness would ultimately be tested outside meeting rooms in Abuja, particularly at local government areas, registration area centres and polling units nationwide.
The chairman identified voter apathy, public distrust, misinformation and disinformation as some of the major challenges that could affect the 2027 elections.
He said the competence and conduct of INEC field officers would remain the commission’s “strongest defence against false narratives.”
INEC is also working to improve its result management systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, which is designed to strengthen the verification of polling-unit results through the national collation centre.
Amupitan cautioned INEC officials against partisan behaviour and administrative negligence, referring to Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which requires relevant electoral and security personnel to take an oath of neutrality.
The commission said the South-West engagement would focus on logistics, technology, security, voter education, recruitment and stakeholder engagement as preparations for the 2027 elections gather pace.