The total number of registered voters in Nigeria may have increased to 96.2 million from 84 million, according to the latest data on voter registration released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to the data released by INEC on Monday, 12,298,944 voters registered in the Continuous voter registration that ended on Sunday.
The North-West geopolitical zone, has the highest number of registered voters, 22.67 million. The zone comprises of Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi and Jigawa.
North-West had 20.15 million voters during the 2019 elections, the report released by INEC showed that the zone recorded additional 2,514,273 voters during the continuous voter registration that ended on Sunday.
The South-West, which earlier had 16.29 million registered voters, now has 18.3 million to come in the second position. The zone added 2, 039, 982 new registered voters. South-West comprises Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti and Ondo.
South-South which had 12.8 million registered voters now has 15.2 million. The zone added 2,4588,155 new voters. It comprises Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo and Delta states.
The North-Central now has 14.1 million voters. it added 2,103,027 new voters. The zone comprises of Nasarawa, Kogi, Benue, Niger, Kwara and Plateau.
North-East now has 12.8 million voters. It added 1,531,070 new voters. The zone is made up of Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe.
The South-East, now has 11.5 million voters. It added 1,441,156 new voters. The zone consists of Ebonyi, Enugu, Abia, Anambra and Imo – now has 11.49 million voters.
The number of registered voters in the Federal Capital Territory has increased from 1.3 million to 1.5 million.
Lagos maintained still has the highest number of registered voters, increasing its figure from 6.5 million to 7.1 million. The state added 585,629 new voters.
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Kano State also maintained its second position, adding 569,103 new voters to increase its number to 6.02 million.
Kaduna State now has 4.4 million registered voters having added 479,231 new voters.
Rivers State now has 3,68 million voters, it added 473,924 new voters to overtake Katsina as the fourth largest state in terms of voters.
Katsina is now in the fifth position with 3.57 million, having added 340,510 new voters.
Some other states with a sizeable number of registered voters are Delta (3.3 million) and Oyo (3.3 million).
Ekiti retained its position as the state with the lowest number of registered voters despite rising from 909, 967 registered voters to 1, 034, 911. The state added 124,844 new voters.
Further breakdown of the 12.3 million registered new voters:
- Youths (18 – 34): 8.78 million
- Middle aged (35 – 49): 2.43 million
- Elderly (50 – 69): 957,017
- Old (70 and above): 127,541
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
