INEC laments absence of cash 10 days to poll

 

By Nurat Uthman

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has expressed concerns that the cashless and currency swap policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will pose a challenge to the successful conduct of the forthcoming general elections. 

The concern is coming less than 11 days before the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections.

According to the commission, if nothing is done to address the cash crunch caused by the policies, INEC would find it difficult to deploy staff and materials for the election as most of the services required cash to obtain.

The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Yahaya Bello, stated this in Abuja on Tuesday at the North-central Stakeholders Roundtable on the 2023 election, organised by the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA).

Bello maintained that apart from the cash challenge, the Commission was prepared for election as it has taken delivery of 80 per cent of materials for the polls and trained staff ahead of the exercise.

He said: “Honestly, I don’t see challenges because the commission has made a lot of preparations. A lot of materials have already been gotten. We have done some trainings. We are doing more trainings. We have made a lot of consultations with stakeholders. A lot of materials have been batched to the area councils which is the local government level.

“When you talk about the challenge, sincerely, the challenge to this election as we are going about now in the FCT and by and large, I believe all over the nation is the cash policy. Because we have already enumerated and made our position clear to the authorities; the CBN, the federal government and what have you exactly how we conduct elections.