INEC Reveals Number of Registered Voters in Nigeria

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that Nigeria’s national voter register now contains more than 103 million registered voters ahead of the 2027 general elections.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday while delivering a keynote address at a strategic workshop for editors organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors in collaboration with the electoral commission in Abuja.

Amupitan said the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise was conducted in three phases under Section 10 of the Electoral Act 2026.

He said the first phase, conducted between August 25 and December 10, 2025, recorded 2,611,266 new registrations. The second phase, which ran from January 5 to April, added 4,121,835 voters, while the third phase, held from May 11 to July 26, recorded 3,867,997 registrations.

According to the INEC chairman, the three phases produced a total of 10,772,421 new registrations, subject to the completion of verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System.

He said the commission had also completed the public display of the Preliminary Register for claims and objections and concluded the final biometric cleaning of the voter register.

Amupitan said INEC introduced an online registration portal during the third phase to reduce the difficulties associated with distance and time. The commission also introduced printable Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) under Section 18(1) of the Electoral Act 2026.

The INEC chairman said the commission was committed to ensuring that eligible voters were not prevented from participating in elections.

He cited the recent experience in Osun State, where PVCs belonging to voters in some wards were reportedly stolen before an election. According to him, INEC used its technology to replace the affected cards and also made downloadable PVCs available to ensure that eligible voters could participate.

Amupitan said INEC had completed the processing and distribution of the first phase of PVCs to local government collection centres.

He announced that nationwide collection of PVCs would begin on October 9 and urged registered voters to collect their cards promptly.

He also appealed to media organisations to provide the public with information about collection centres and encourage registered voters to obtain their PVCs ahead of the 2027 elections.