INEC Clarifies Stance on N1.5 Billion Fee for Certified True Copies of Voter Register
In response to widespread public discourse and media inquiries, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has issued a formal clarification regarding the reported N1.5 billion fee for obtaining Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the national voter register. The Commission’s statement aims to address misconceptions and provide transparency on the cost structure, which is governed by existing legal frameworks and administrative protocols.
Contextualizing the Cost: A Matter of Administrative Procedure
The figure of N1.5 billion emerged from a standard administrative process, not as a blanket fee for public access. INEC officials have explained that the cost is calculated based on specific provisions within the Electoral Act and the Commission’s guidelines for document certification and reproduction. The total amount reflects the cumulative expense for producing a complete, certified copy of the entire voter register, a document spanning thousands of pages and containing the records of millions of registered voters across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
This provision is primarily designed for political parties, litigants in electoral cases, research institutions, and other corporate entities that may require the entire dataset for legal, analytical, or strategic purposes. The Commission emphasized that this is not a fee intended for individual voters seeking to confirm their registration details, for which simpler and cost-free verification channels exist on the INEC portal and via USSD codes.
Breakdown of the Fee Structure
INEC’s clarification detailed the components that constitute the fee. It is not a singular charge but an aggregation of costs associated with:
Data Compilation and Verification: The process involves collating data from all 176,846 polling units across the nation, ensuring consistency, and verifying the integrity of the information to produce a unified document.
Certification and Legal Authentication: Each copy is stamped, sealed, and signed by the National Commissioner in charge of the Electoral Operations and Logistics Committee, granting it legal status as a Certified True Copy, admissible in courts of law.
Logistics and Production: The physical production of a complete register involves significant material and human resource costs, including printing, binding, and secure delivery for a document of such massive scale.
The Commission underscored that the fee is calculated on a per-request basis. Entities requiring only a subset of the data—for instance, the register for a specific local government area or state constituency—would be charged a proportionally lower fee, calculated based on the volume of data requested.
Legal and Regulatory Framework Governing Access
The authority to charge for Certified True Copies of electoral documents is derived from the Electoral Act 2022 and the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011. While the FOI Act promotes public access to information, it also allows public institutions to levy fees for the reproduction of documents, especially when requests involve substantial administrative burden and resource allocation.
INEC maintains that this policy is consistent with global best practices for electoral management bodies, where access to comprehensive electoral data for commercial or extensive legal use often incurs cost-recovery charges. The primary goal is to ensure the sustainability of the Commission’s operations without compromising its duty to maintain a transparent and credible electoral process.
Ensuring Public Transparency and Accessibility
Despite the clarification on the CTC fee, INEC reaffirmed its commitment to transparency. The Commission’s Chairman highlighted that substantial information from the voter register, including summarized data on voter distribution by gender, age, and disability status, is routinely published on its official website and in public reports free of charge.
For individual voters, the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED) and online verification platforms remain the primary, cost-free tools for checking registration status and polling unit location. The high-cost CTC service is a specialized offering for comprehensive data needs, distinct from the public’s general access to electoral information.
This clarification from INEC seeks to balance the legal and administrative realities of managing a national database with the imperative of maintaining public trust. It distinguishes between general public access to information and the specific, resource-intensive service of providing a legally binding copy of the entire voter register, thereby providing a clearer understanding of the Commission’s operational protocols.
