The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially commenced the configuration of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and begun airlifting non-sensitive election materials across Nigeria ahead of the 2027 general elections.
​The operational milestone was confirmed on Saturday, November 14, 2026, in Abuja by INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna.
Addressing journalists on the commission’s preparedness, Haruna disclosed that technical personnel had actively begun configuring the electronic accreditation devices while logistical deployments were underway with military air support.
​”The distribution of the non-sensitive materials for the 2027 election is already on. As we speak, Air Force jets are currently deploying materials to states,” Haruna stated.
​The configuration exercise builds on an earlier briefing held on Thursday, November 12, 2026, at the INEC headquarters in Abuja, where National Commissioner Prof. Rhoda Gumus represented INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan during a strategic engagement with a visiting delegation from Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), led by Kenya’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Isaac Parashina.
During the meeting, Prof. Gumus announced that the commission had already executed nine scheduled pre-election activities and was conducting intensive readiness assessments across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones to identify and eliminate potential logistical bottlenecks.
She further noted that non-sensitive election materials were already moving to designated zonal hubs, while the printing of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) had been completed, with the first and second batches already delivered to most states for ongoing collection by registered voters.
​Simultaneously, the technical configuration of the BVAS units aligns with broader infrastructural reforms announced by INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan during a policy dialogue at Chatham House in London on Thursday, November 12, 2026.
Prof. Amupitan revealed that the commission had procured additional BVAS machines and lowered the maximum voter-to-device threshold from 1,250 to 850 registered voters per machine, ensuring that polling units exceeding that limit are equipped with supplementary devices to prevent accreditation delays.
​To validate these technical upgrades ahead of the polls, the commission has scheduled a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise for Saturday, November 28, 2026, allowing officials to stress-test the configured BVAS machines and electronic result transmission protocols under field conditions.
According to INEC’s official electoral timetable, the Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold nationwide on Saturday, January 16, 2027, followed by the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on Saturday, February 6, 2027, with accreditation and voting scheduled to run simultaneously from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM on both days.
