Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, stated that the approved N100bn was not enough for the 2023 general elections.
The electoral umpire has started discussing the possibility of a supplementary budget to solve this issue.
“We are already in touch with the Federal Ministry of Finance on the additional requirement for the 2023 general elections,” said Yakubu.
The committees previously approved N100bn for the 2023 polls and N40bn for the 2022 agency budget.
The number of future registered voters will multiply beyond the number for the 2019 general elections, which was 84 million. Since the 2019 general elections appropriated a total of N189bn, the N100b would only be considered as the first tranche for this period.
Additional budget is essential as the polling units have been expanded. New technology and other innovations for elections will be introduced as well.
Yakubu broke down the budget into several matters. The electoral operational and administrative cost is predicted to take N23.3bn, election technology at N61.1bn, electoral capital cost at N15.4bn, and electoral operational and recurrent cost at N7.3bn.
Yakubu revealed that INEC has also budgeted the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections in 2022 that includes the possibility of runoffs.
“We made a provision of N2.6bn for Ekiti State (election) with a population of over one million registered voters and N4.4bn for Osun with 30 local government areas.”
The commission also monitors party congresses and primaries from the ward levels that comprise of 8,809 wards and 18 political parties.
