2027: INEC records 10.18m new voters as CVR ends

By Omeiza Ajayi

Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has announced that a total of 3,867,997 Nigerians successfully completed the Continuous Voter Registration CVR exercise at the end of Phase III, Week Eleven, which concluded on Sunday, July 26, 2026.

Checks revealed that millions of eligible voters may have been added to the voter register during the three phases of the exercise so far. During the first phase, about 2,572,054 voters completed their registration, while 3,748,704 voters were added at the end of the second phase, bringing the cumulative figure to about 10,188,755 when added to the Phase III total.

There are currently over 93 million registered voters in Nigeria. INEC will still embark on a de-duplication process for the over 10 million fresh registrants in order to remove multiple registrants before adding the cleaned figure to the National Register of Voters.

According to the commission’s infographic released on Wednesday night, 2,697,863 registrants completed the exercise through physical registration centres, while 1,170,134 registered online before completing the required process. This shows that physical registration remained the preferred option, accounting for nearly 70 per cent of all completed registrations.

A breakdown by state indicates that Kano State recorded the highest number of completed registrations with 330,906, representing 8.55 per cent of the nationwide total. Lagos State followed with 181,254 registrations (4.69 per cent), while Delta State ranked third with 166,895 registrations (4.31 per cent). Edo State registered 156,150 voters, and Sokoto State recorded 145,160.

Other states with high registration figures include Ebonyi (146,507), Taraba (141,649), Ogun (136,921), Bauchi (128,753), Jigawa (125,155), and Oyo (125,144).

At the lower end of the chart, Ekiti State recorded 2,276 completed registrations, while Ondo State registered 23,824. Plateau State had 41,993 completed registrations, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded 56,285.

The commission also noted that Osun State recorded no registrations during the period because the Continuous Voter Registration exercise was suspended ahead of the forthcoming governorship election, in line with Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022.

INEC said the figures reflect completed online and physical registrations across the country as the nationwide CVR exercise progresses toward expanding voter participation ahead of future elections.