The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that N100 billion is insufficient to conduct general elections in 2023.
INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu said the N100 billion projected for the 2023 general elections in next year’s budget is insufficient.
On Friday, he revealed this while testifying before the Senate Committee on INEC to defend INEC’s budget estimates for 2022.
Yakubu pointed out that N189 billion was allocated for the 2019 general elections, and that N100 billion is insufficient for 2023.
The INEC boss said the proposed N100bn was the first tranche for the 2023 general elections.
According to Yakubu, INEC is making efforts with the Ministry of Finance to increase the proposed sum for the 2023 general election.
According to Yakubu: “We are already in touch with the Federal Ministry of Finance on the additional requirements for the 2023 general elections.
“Either we come to the National Assembly to defend the budget before the committee or we would do what we did in 2019 when the executive just submitted the proposal to the National Assembly and we came to defend it.
“We would need more money because we’ve expanded our polling units and we are introducing new technology for elections among many other new innovations. The number of registered voters will increase beyond the 84 million for the 2019 general elections.”