Women account for 49.9 million of the 103.4 million registered voters ahead of the 2027 general elections, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Tuesday at a stakeholders meeting and press conference in Abuja, where he presented an update on the national voters’ register following the completion of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise and biometric clean-up.
Amupitan said the register now contains 103,428,715 voters, comprising 53,528,218 males, representing 51.75 per cent, and 49,900,497 females, representing 48.25 per cent.
“The top 10 states by number of registered voters are Lagos State in first position with 7,488,633 registered voters; followed by Kano State with 6,570,276. Next is Kaduna State with 4,662,640 voters,” the INEC chairman said.
Katsina followed with 3,876,051 registered voters, while Rivers ranked fifth with 3,736,434. Oyo had 3,588,111 voters, Delta 3,525,988, Benue 3,057,225, Ogun 3,037,981 and Bauchi 3,012,547.
The three leading states — Lagos, Kano and Kaduna — therefore account for more than 18.7 million registered voters, making them the states with the largest voter populations on the updated register.
The commission said the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration exercise produced 10,772,421 new registrations before the final biometric verification and cleaning of the register.
On the age distribution, Amupitan said voters aged between 35 and 49 years constituted the largest group, with 43,265,946 voters, representing 41.83 per cent of the register.
Those aged 18 to 34 years accounted for 29,777,576 voters, representing 28.79 per cent, while voters between 50 and 69 years numbered 22,982,900, or 22.22 per cent.
Voters aged 70 years and above formed the smallest age category, with 7,402,291 registered voters, representing 7.16 per cent.
At the lower end of the state-by-state distribution, Ekiti had the fewest registered voters with 1,055,708, followed by Bayelsa with 1,200,691.
The Federal Capital Territory ranked third from the bottom with 1,732,043 voters, followed by Ondo with 1,733,641 and Gombe with 1,768,560.
The INEC chairman also disclosed that 232,658 persons with disabilities were captured in the register across 10 categories, representing about 0.23 per cent of the total electorate.
He said the largest category was classified as “others”, with 101,183 registered voters, followed by persons with albinism at 44,023 and those with physical impairment at 27,141.
The register also contains 19,936 persons with visual impairment, 14,326 with hearing impairment, 8,832 with autism and 7,723 classified as having cognitive or learning disabilities.
Others include 5,755 persons with limb impairment, 2,008 with Down syndrome and 1,656 with spinal cord injuries.
Meanwhile, INEC has announced that nationwide collection of newly issued Permanent Voter Cards will begin on October 9, 2026.
The commission will also display the register for public scrutiny from October 9 to 15, in compliance with Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2026.
Amupitan said the exercise would enable Nigerians to examine the register and raise claims or objections ahead of the 2027 elections.
“The register of voters will be displayed for public scrutiny from the 9th to 15th of October 2026, not later than 90 days before the general election,” he said.
