INEC Reveals How Naira Scarcity Might Interfere With 2023 Election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may find it challenging to conduct the 2023 general election as a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) cashless policy.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the Federal Capital Territory, Yahaya Bello, said this while delivering a speech on Tuesday in Abuja at the North-Central Elections Stakeholders Roundtable, which was organized by the civil society group Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA).

Naija News recalls that Nigerians have been lining up in front of ATMs to obtain the new notes following CBN’s decision to redesign the N200, N500, and ₦1,000 notes. Those who can not get the notes from the ATMs, have to buy it between 10 to 20 percent per order.

In reaction to how difficult it has been to get cash, the INEC commissioner said INEC requires money to be able to manage logistics and security, hence, the dearth of naira would interfere with those responsibilities.

He said that because most services required cash to be purchased, INEC would struggle to deploy staff and election-related materials in the FCT and throughout the country if nothing was done to address the cash constraint caused by the CBN’s cashless policy.

Apart from the financial issue, the INEC Commissioner claimed that the Commission was prepared for the election because it had received 80% of the election-related paperwork and had people who had undergone training beforehand.

Bello continued: “Before the election day, we are going to deploy the services providers.

“On the night of Friday (the day before the election) in the FCT, we have more than 12, 000 ad-hoc staff that we are going to give cash. None of them will receive a cheque or accept a transfer. I am talking about FCT (12,00) which will require about ₦5,000 cash on Friday night.

“Also those who are going to transport our men, materials, and security to the polling units will need cash to do that. In Kano, we have 44 local governments, and they are going to move to how many polling units.

“There is money for security because you can not take a security person to a polling unit without giving him money to eat and I don’t see the ₦1,000 you have given to him, he will go to the POS and withdraw it.”