With less than a week until the presidential and national assembly elections in 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) allegedly has not released funds to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for logistics.
This comes at a time when Nigerians are experiencing difficulties as a result of the country’s cash shortage.
The Daily Independent reports that sources who spoke with the platform on Saturday claimed that the 2023 general elections could be jeopardized.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, previously stated that INEC had presented its fund requirement to the CBN.
On Saturday, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, stated that he is confident that the Central Bank of Nigeria will honor its cash request for the elections.
Yakubu, on the other hand, stated that the logistics for the 2023 general elections necessitate the use of physical cash.
The INEC Chairman stated this in Abuja following a tour of the training center for INEC ad hoc staff or presiding officers, as well as an inspection of facilities at the International Conference Centre’s national collation center (ICC).
He said;
We visited the CBN last week on the issue of cash for payment of some of the services, not all, some of the services that we are going to engage on election day.
The bulk of payment for goods and services is made through electronic transfer. But there are certain critical services that will be remunerated by cash, and that’s why we went to the CBN and it’s a small percentage of the budget.
The Central Bank has assured us that we will not suffer any encumbrances in that regard. So there are no issues with respect to that.
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