2027: INEC reveals Lagos, Kano, Kaduna have highest registered voters

Ahead of the 2027 elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed that Lagos, Kano and Kaduna top the list of states with the highest number of registered voters.

The chairman of the commission, Prof Joash Amupitan, stated this in Abuja on Tuesday, during a press conference, adding, that Nigeria is the largest democracy in Africa with over 103 million registered voters.

Amupitan said, in the three stages of the CVR exercise, 10,772,421 new registrations were recorded after the completion of the Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) exercise.
According to him, 103 million voters now make Nigeria the largest democracy in Africa.

He listed the top 10 states with the highest number of registered voters, with Lagos, Kano and Kaduna occupying the first three positions.

“The national voter list now stands at 103 million people, making Nigeria the largest democracy in Africa. The top ten states by number of registered voters are Lagos State which is in first place with 7,488,633 registered voters, followed by Kano State with 6,570,276 voters. Next is Kaduna State with 4,662,640 voters,” said Amupitan.

Other states in the top 10 list are Katsina State with 3,876,051 registered voters; Rivers State, 3,736,434; Oyo State, 3,588,111; Delta State, 3,525,988; Benue State, 3,057,225; Ogun State, 3,037,981; and Bauchi State, 3,012,547.

Amupitan added, “In last place is Ekiti State with 1,055,708 registered voters, followed by Bayelsa State with 1,200,691 registered voters. The FCT is next from the bottom with 1,772,043 voters, followed by Yobe State with 1,733,641, and Gombe with 1,768,566.”

The INEC Chairman also revealed that male voters numbered 53,528,218, representing 51.75 percent of the total electorate, while female voters numbered 49,900,497, representing 48.25 percent.

He added that the age profile shows that the list is dominated by voters aged between 35 and 49 years, amounting to 43,265,946 voters or 41.83 percent of the total voters.

Followed by voters aged 18 to 34 years, numbering 29,777,576 and representing 28.79 percent.

Voters aged 50 to 69 years numbered 22,982,900 or 22.22 percent, while those aged 70 years and over were the smallest age group, with 7,402,291 voters, representing 7.16 percent.

Amupitan also noted that the list recorded 232,658 people with disabilities spread across 10 disability categories, representing around 0.23 percent of the total 103.4 million registered voters.

In accordance with Article 19(1) of the 2026 Election Law, the voter list will be displayed for public scrutiny from 9 to 16 October 2026, no later than 90 days before the election.

He said claims and objections arising from the nationwide display of voter lists would be addressed thereafter.

He also said that the first phase of distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) in all regional government centers will begin on October 9 2026.