From Voter Data to Vote Count: Nigeria's Tech Leaders Demand Trust and Protection Ahead of 2027

Can Nigerians trust the count? That question sat at the heart of a Lagos summit this week, as policymakers, regulators, and tech innovators wrestled with how to rebuild public confidence in the country's electoral process before the 2027 general elections.

The Nigeria e-Government Summit and Awards, held Thursday, September 10, 2026, at the Radisson Blu in GRA, Lagos, brought together government officials, technologists, and civil society under the theme "Mainstreaming Technologies in Nigeria Election Management." The message from the stage was consistent: technology alone won't save Nigeria's elections; trust will.

A Summit With a Track Record

In his welcome address, Convener and Chairman of the summit, Engr. Lanre Ajayi, noted that the gathering has, over the years, shaped policy conversations, influenced the adoption of digital identity systems, accelerated internally generated revenue (IGR) sensitisation across states, and championed broadband expansion. The summit, he said, exists "not merely to discuss ideas but to forge partnerships, drive commitment and galvanise actions."

With election season approaching, Ajayi called the timing of this year's theme "timely, relevant and cogent."

"With elections scheduled across multiple states, the nation's political attention is sharply focused on how votes are cast, counted and protected," he said. "The question of technology in election management is not an academic one. It is a question that will determine whether Nigerians trust the outcomes of elections that shape their lives, their livelihood and their futures."

He pointed to recent electoral experiences across Africa as evidence of technology's transformative power — particularly biometric voter registration, which has helped eliminate multiple registrations. The consensus among stakeholders was clear: the debate is no longer *whether* technology belongs in election management, but *how* to mainstream it to deliver what many called an "independent, trusted, comprehensive and citizens-endorsed electoral future."

Blockchain, AI, and the Ghost of 2023

One of the summit's lead papers, delivered by Dr Emmanuel Olarewaju Ayoola, President of the Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN), zeroed in on two technologies he believes hold the greatest promise: Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.

Ayoola described blockchain as the ideal tool for election management — a tamper-evident ledger that anchors each result sheet the moment it's captured, making any alteration instantly detectable. He argued it could push Nigeria beyond the current Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) toward a fully verifiable auditing standard.

He drew on international precedent to make his case:

- Estonia's KSI Blockchain has secured the country's national e-voting portal for two decades, with over 400,000 Estonians voting remotely as recently as 2023.

- Sierra Leone used a blockchain shadow tally as early as 2018.

NAFDAC's Link platform** has verified more than 10,000 shareholder votes annually via blockchain since 2015.

Tracing Nigeria's own trajectory — from Smart Card Readers in 2015, to BVAS, to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) rolled out between 2019 and 2023 — Ayoola pushed back on the narrative that the country is starting from scratch.

"The IReV portal had carried over 100 elections and by-elections before 2023, with more than 16 million voters already using it," he said. "What failed in 2023 was the real-time transmission of results at a volume of over half a million result sheets — greater than anything the portal had previously handled."

He attributed the breakdown primarily to transmission and logistics failures under unprecedented load, compounded by lost or damaged devices and connectivity gaps in parts of the country.

Still, Ayoola was careful not to oversell either technology. "They require a trusted digital identity foundation," he cautioned. "AI is capable of imagining its own reality and communicating it as fact. This is a major potential problem when bringing AI into an electoral process. It is not, however, an insurmountable problem."

Government Voices Echo the Trust Mandate

Keynote speakers Dr Vincent Olatunji and a representative of NITDA, Director-General Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, backed Ayoola's assessment. The NITDA representative urged tech stakeholders to fully support initiatives strengthening INEC, including public sensitisation campaigns on using technology to shape the country's future.

State-level officials brought a more operational lens to the conversation. Associate Professor Justin Beshel, Cross River State's Commissioner for Science and Technology, argued that the real issue isn't the technology itself but ensuring it holds up as legally sound, effective, and admissible evidence.

"Trust must be built in technology because if the people don't have trust in technology, they can see it as a way of trying to subvert," Beshel said. "In Cross River, clearance is collected from the Ministry of Science and Technology to ensure all state digital infrastructure is in place. Government goes beyond technology — we should also look at the issue of operations."

Enugu State's representative revealed that all cameras across the state are now AI-enabled, aimed at cracking down on ballot box hijackers. Anambra's Special Advisor on Innovation and Business Incubation, Chinwe Okoli, echoed the summit's central refrain: "Without trust, even the most sophisticated technology will fail."

Okoli added that embedding security into electronic devices enables real-time monitoring, part of a broader push to address the many faces of verification challenges in the electoral process.

Innovation on Display

Beyond the policy discussions, the summit hosted an exhibition floor featuring tech companies including LinkorgNet, Smart Invite, and ntel. A representative from ntel, Temi, used the platform to spotlight two of the company's digital offerings: *Waka Go*, a travel e-SIM with pay-as-you-go and package plans starting at ₦13,000 annually, and *n Fibre*.

The event closed with an Awards Ceremony honouring dignitaries and government parastatals who have shaped the growth of Nigeria's technology sector, with Edo and Cross River states topping the chart.

The Road Ahead

As Nigeria counts down to its next electoral cycle, the summit's takeaway was less about any single technology and more about the ecosystem required to make it trustworthy: infrastructure, policy, and — above all — public confidence. Without that trust, stakeholders warned, even the most advanced electoral systems risk repeating the failures of the past.