The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, has said the commission’s staff are the “least paid in Nigeria”, adding that steps are being taken to improve their welfare ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan spoke on Tuesday at a press conference and national stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, where he outlined measures being implemented by the commission to strengthen its workforce and electoral processes.
“INEC staff are the least paid in Nigeria. So we felt that if we want to demand and hold our staff responsible, we should give them a living wage. And that is why we have taken some very radical steps to ensure that the welfare of INEC staff is prioritised,” he said.
According to the INEC chairman, the commission’s employees have traditionally been placed under the civil service salary structure despite not being classified as civil servants.
“We are not called civil servants, but we have been lumped under the civil service payment structure, which we have just removed INEC from, to have its own separate electoral structure and a separate salary structure from the civil service,” Amupitan said.
He added that the commission had identified other gaps that needed to be addressed to improve the quality of its operations.
“So those are some of the gaps. There are many others that we have discovered, and we felt that if addressed, quality will improve,” he said.
INEC creates AI division ahead of 2027 elections
Amupitan also disclosed that INEC had established a dedicated Artificial Intelligence division within its Information and Communications Technology department as part of efforts to combat misinformation and strengthen the verification of election results.
“The commission has established a dedicated artificial intelligence division within the ICT department. Automated AI auditing tools have been integrated into our results verification process, under a five-pillar AI governance framework, operating under mandatory human oversight,” he said.
He added that the commission was finalising an AI governance policy and working with international technology companies and other partners to deploy AI-powered tools for detecting anomalies.
“An AI governance framework policy is being finalised by the commission. In partnership with international technology leaders and partners, we are integrating our AI-driven anomaly detection tools,” Amupitan said.
The INEC chairman also said the commission was upgrading its election technology ahead of the 2027 elections, including improvements to its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices.
Meanwhile, INEC said the first phase of the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) at local government centres nationwide would begin on October 9, 2026.
