The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday informed the National Assembly that it requires N873.78bn to conduct the 2027 general elections.
The agency also demanded N171bn to fund its operations in the 2026 fiscal year.
The N873.78bn proposed for the 2027 elections represents a significant increase from the N313.4bn released by the Federal Government for the conduct of the 2023 general election.
The country will hold general elections in 2027, while Ekiti and Osun states will conduct governorship elections this year, alongside the Federal Capital Territory election and by-elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, disclosed this while presenting the commission’s 2026 budget proposal and the projected cost for the 2027 general elections before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Matters in Abuja.
According to Amupitan, the N873.78bn election budget covers the full conduct of the 2027 general elections, while the N171bn proposal for 2026 is to support routine activities, including by-elections and off-season polls.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria noted that the proposed election budget did not include a fresh request from the National Youth Service Corps seeking increased allowances for corps members engaged as ad hoc staff during elections.
He explained that although details of specific line items were not exhaustively presented, the nearly N1tn election budget was structured across five major components.
“N379.75bn is for operational costs, N92.32bn for administrative costs, N209.21bn for technological costs, N154.91bn for election capital costs and N42.61bn for miscellaneous expenses,” Amupitan said.
He stated that the budget was prepared “in line with Section 3(3) of the Electoral Act 2022, which mandates the commission to prepare its election budget at least one year before the general election.”
On the 2026 fiscal year, Amupitan disclosed that the Ministry of Finance provided a budget envelope of N140bn, but added that “INEC is proposing a total expenditure of N171bn.”
The breakdown includes N109bn for personnel costs, N18.7bn for overheads, N42.63bn for election-related activities and N1.4bn for capital expenditure.
