Isaac Samuel
The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that 2,532,062 Nigerians have pre-registered online in the first two weeks of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
According to the data released by the commission on Tuesday, Osun maintained lead with 474,372 pre-registrants, followed by Lagos (355,372) and Ogun (265,399), while Ebonyi (490), Enugu (856) and Abia (1,845) recorded the lowest figures.
The commission said the data covered online pre-registration from August 18 to 31, 2025.
National commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, Sam Olumekun, however, disclosed that in-person registration, which commenced on August 25, 2025, recorded 72,274 registrations in its first five days.
Akwa Ibom leads in completed physical registrations with 5,470, while Osun, despite having the highest online pre-registration at 474,372, has recorded only 548 physical completions so far.
The data revealed that for the pre-registration, youths aged 18–34 accounted for 1,602,484 representing 63.29 per cent of the pre-registrants, while students made up 647,528 indicating 25.57 per cent.
Women slightly outnumbered men, with 1,313,580 female applicants compared to 1,218,482 males.
The South-West dominated the registration surge, with Osun, Lagos, and Ogun topping the list, while the South-East recorded some of the lowest figures.
The data showed that the North-East also showed notable mobilisation, with Borno (135,661) and Yobe (101,622) among the top performers.
Olumekun noted that the introduction of the pre-registration option in 2021 has enabled Nigerians to commence the online process from anywhere in the world 24 hours a day including weekends.
He, however, declared that online pre-registrants are required to appear physically to complete the process in the commission’s 811 State and Local Government offices nationwide where their fingerprints and facial biometric details will be captured.
According to him, the commission is aware that there are Nigerians who have no access to online facilities or those who prefer to register in-person.
“This instruction is clearly stated on the online portal. We urge all online pre-registrants to complete the process in-person at the INEC designated registration centres without which the online process alone is invalid.
“Our staff have been deployed to attend to eligible citizens at the Commission’s 811 State and Local Government offices nationwide where they can simultaneously begin and complete their registration.
“The centres are open from 9.00am – 3.00pm daily (Monday to Friday). The list and addresses of the centres have already been made public”, Olumekun said.
