INEC 2027 Elections Budget: Nearly N1tn Sought to Conduct Polls

By: Abudu Olalekan

INEC needs almost a trillion naira. For the 2027 elections. Yeah. That’s the number they told lawmakers. N873.78 billion. A huge jump from the 2023 budget. Which was, what, N313 billion? Something like that.

The commission also wants another N171 billion just to keep the lights on in 2026. For by-elections. Off-season polls. Routine stuff.

Prof. Joash Amupitan, the INEC chairman, presented this. Before the National Assembly committee. In Abuja. He broke down the big number. N379.75bn for operations. N92.32bn for admin. N209.21bn for tech. N154.91bn for capital election stuff. And N42.61bn for, well, miscellaneous. He said it’s all by the book. The Electoral Act 2022 says they gotta plan this stuff a year ahead.

But here’s the thing. The 2026 budget they got from Finance? Only N140bn. They’re asking for N171bn. A shortfall. Amupitan complained about this “envelope budgeting.” Said it don’t work for INEC. They need flexible, urgent cash. Not tied up.

He also talked about their own network. They wanna build one. So if the internet dies on election day, Nigerians can point fingers properly. Accountability, he called it.

Now the politicians had their say. Senator Simon Lalong promised support. So did Rep. Bayo Balogun. But Balogun? He warned them. “Be careful with promises,” he said. Remember the 2023 IReV portal? INEC said results would upload live. It was just a regulation, not even in the law. And it kinda flopped. So, don’t over-promise.

Adams Oshiomhole was blunter. External agencies shouldn’t tell INEC how to budget, he said. The committee agreed. They recommended releasing INEC’s full budget at once. And they’ll look at the NYSC request later—about N32bn to hike corps members’ election allowances to N125k each.

The committee’s got the 2027 cost. It’s massive. But will they get it? That’s the million-dollar question. Or, well, the trillion-naira one.