The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has implored the Federal Government to consider an early release of funds for the coming general election in 2023.
The commission said this would enhance early preparation that would help it to achieve expected results by Nigerians.
INEC on December 20, 2021 presented a budget of N305bn to the National Assembly, saying this was independent of the N40bn yearly budget of the commission, which includes expenditure for off-season elections.
Presenting the budget, the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakub noted that N100bn had been released to the commission, remaining N205bn.
When its level of preparation was requested, he said, “The commission has defended its 2023 budget before the Appropriations Committee of the National Assembly. “We are hopeful that funds due to the commission will be released on time. One of the new innovations in the bill is for funds of the commission to be released at least a year to a general election. We hope that the approving and releasing authorities will follow this timeline in the release of funds to the commission.”
He added that the N140bn was broken into two.
“We take it that N40bn is our regular budget as an agency of government and N100bn is the first tranche of the 2022 budget. We have gone ahead to make provisions accordingly,” he added.