JUST IN: No Cash Yet For Elections – INEC

JUST IN: No Cash Yet For Elections – INEC

Ten days before the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, cash for the mobilization of ad hoc staff for the polls has yet to be made available to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), according to the Daily Trust.

Nigerians have been experiencing a scarcity of naira notes since the Central Bank of Nigeria redesigned the N200, N500, and N1000 notes (CBN).

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of INEC, met with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, last Tuesday, and requested concessions regarding the naira redesign policy, specifically the limitations placed on cash withdrawals and the need to make some cash available for some peculiarities that cannot be met through electronic transfer of funds.

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While responding, Emefiele stated that he would ensure that the CBN is not seen as an agent used to sabotage the upcoming general election, assuring that the apex bank would provide INEC with the necessary naira notes.

However, when the Resident Electoral Commissioner for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Yahaya Bello, raised the issue, it appeared that the new notes had not been made available to the electoral body ahead of the election.

The INEC’s ability to conduct the general election, according to Bello, may be hampered by the CBN’s cashless policy.

Speaking at the North-Central stakeholders’ roundtable on the 2023 general elections, organized by the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) in Abuja, he stated that the commission requires cash to coordinate security and logistics, and that the naira’s scarcity may have an impact on this.

He stated that if nothing was done to address the cash crunch caused by the policies, INEC would struggle to deploy staff and materials for the election in the FCT and across the country because most services required cash to obtain.

He did, however, say that, aside from the cash issue, the commission was ready for the elections, having received 80% of polling materials and trained staff ahead of the February 25 and March 11 elections.

He did, however, say that INEC was in talks with the CBN to figure out how to solve the problem.

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