The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s latest statistics covering Phase III, Week Nine of the exercise as of July 17, 2026, indicate that 2,970,257 eligible Nigerians had successfully registered.

Of the total figure, 970,865 registrants (33.79 per cent) completed their registration online, while 2,000,092 (66.21 per cent) registered physically at designated centres.

A demographic breakdown of the registrants shows that women accounted for 1,561,765 (52.57 per cent), while men constituted 1,409,192 (47.43 per cent).

Young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 34 years made up the largest category of registrants with 2,003,183 (67.43 per cent).

They were followed by those aged 35 to 49 years with 645,651 (21.73 per cent), 50 to 69 years with 294,443 (9.91 per cent), while 27,680 (0.93 per cent) were aged 70 years and above.

By occupation, students recorded the highest number of registrations with 695,026, followed by business owners (626,523), farmers and fishermen (505,402), and housewives (480,682). Other registrants included artisans (152,184), traders (133,834), civil servants (74,507) and public servants (47,778).

INEC further disclosed that 32,361 persons living with disabilities were successfully registered during the exercise.

State-by-state statistics showed that Kano State recorded the highest number of new registrations with 234,305, followed by Lagos (140,546) and Edo (139,313).

Other states with high registration figures included Delta (132,330), Taraba (113,409), Ebonyi (111,344), Sokoto (109,076), Ogun (96,571), Bauchi (96,061), Jigawa (95,592), Kaduna (92,505), Benue (88,840), Oyo (88,716), Imo (88,155), Anambra (87,195), Nasarawa (86,914), Cross River (86,559), Bayelsa (80,425), Niger (76,841), Kwara (76,084), Katsina (74,896),Gombe (74,152), Yobe (71,382), Kebbi (70,859), Kogi (69,713), Adamawa (65,505), Borno (44,866), the Federal Capital Territory (41,700), and Plateau (31,352).

At the lower end of the scale, Ekiti recorded 841 completed registrations, while Ondo had 17,679.

Registration in Osun State remained suspended because of the forthcoming August 15th governorship election, in line with Section 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2026, leaving the state with no registrations during the reporting period.

INEC noted that the 2.97 million registrations remain preliminary, explaining that the figures are subject to clean-up through the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to remove multiple registrations and address objections from citizens.

National commissioner Haruna has said that in continuation of the process, the commission will display the Register of Voters for claims and objections from Thursday, 23rd July to Wednesday, 29th July 2026.

However, INEC has ruled out the possibility of further extension of nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise after the end of its third and final phase on Sunday, 26th July 2026 ahead of the 2027 General Elections.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Mohammed Kudu Haruna, as well as INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity (VEP), Victoria Eta-Messi, confirmed this to Nigerian Tribune.

Also, in a post on its official X handle, INEC stressed that CVR closed on Sunday, July 26.

When asked if the commission would extend the deadline again, Haruna said, “No. There will be no extension of the two-week extension”, while Mrs Eta-Messi simply asked “Is there any need to extend the CVR exercise?”

The duo also confirmed the receipt of access codes for the upload of names and particulars of Governorship and State Houses of Assembly candidates by all the 21 registered political parties.

When asked about the number of political parties that had obtained access codes to enable their designated national officers to upload names, personal particulars, and other required information relating nominated candidates, the chairman of IVEC said, “All 22 political parties have collected their token for the submission of their candidates”, while the Director of VEP said, “All parties I believe have obtained their access codes.”

On the number of captured during the CVR and the total number of registered voters in the country, the national commissioner said, “We will not know the total number until after 12 midnight tomorrow (Sunday) when the portal shuts down.”

However, Nigerian Tribune can conveniently report that about 9,291,715 eligible Nigerians may have been added to the register of voters ahead of the 2027 general election during the three phases of the CVR exercise. (Nigerian Tribune)

Update news