Nigerians Trust BVAS and IReV More Than INEC Itself, New Survey Shows
- Yiaga Africa's NVIS 3.0 survey found that confidence in INEC sits at 34%, while trust in election technology reached 49%
- Awareness of electoral reforms has jumped sharply from 24% to 62% across three rounds of the national voter intention survey
- Only 40% of young Nigerians say they are very likely to vote ahead of the 2027 general elections
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A new survey by the election observation group Yiaga Africa has found that Nigerians place more trust in the technology used to conduct elections than in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which oversees the process.
The findings come from the third edition of Yiaga Africa's National Voter Intention Survey, known as NVIS 3.0. According to the survey, public confidence in INEC stands at just 34%, while trust in the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the IReV result transmission platform is notably higher at 49%.
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Yiaga Africa said the 15-percentage-point gap between the two figures is significant. The group noted that faith in the tools of an election does not automatically translate into faith in the body responsible for running it, suggesting that INEC faces a credibility challenge that technology upgrades alone cannot resolve.
Electoral reform awareness on the rise
One of the more encouraging trends in the data is a sharp increase in public awareness of electoral reforms. Across the three rounds of the survey, awareness rose from 24% in NVIS 1.0 to 37% in NVIS 2.0 and then to 62% in NVIS 3.0. In each round, a majority of respondents said these reforms had increased their confidence in the electoral process.
Yiaga Africa interpreted this pattern as evidence that Nigerians are not dismissing the system outright. Instead, the group suggested the public sentiment is closer to cautious acknowledgement: people can see the technology working, but remain uncertain about the institution behind it.
Youth participation raises concern
The survey also highlighted worrying trends among younger Nigerians, a demographic widely expected to influence the outcome of the 2027 general elections. Only 40% of young people who responded said they were very likely to vote.
The group also reported that young Nigerians expressed greater fear of electoral violence compared to older age groups. They also showed lower levels of trust in INEC and a heavier reliance on social media as their primary source of election information.
Yiaga Africa said rebuilding trust in INEC as an institution may be just as urgent a task as continuing to improve election technology ahead of 2027, noting that while the tools of voting appear to be gaining public acceptance, the organisation managing those tools still has ground to recover.
Source: Legit.ng
