The Information Technology Association of Nigeria (ITAN) has proposed the use of blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to strengthen electoral auditing and evidence ahead of the 2027 elections.
ITAN President, Dr Emmanuel Ayoola, made the proposal at the 2026 Nigerian e-Government Summit and Awards Night in Lagos.
Ayoola, who is also the Group Chief Executive Officer of Tranter IT, made the proposal while delivering a keynote address with the title: “Beyond BVAS: Exploring Blockchain and AI for Immutable Electoral Auditing.”
The session focused on strengthening public confidence in election results through the application of emerging technologies.
He said that blockchain technology could create tamper-evident records of result sheets from the point of capture, thereby providing a verifiable trail for electoral auditing.
ITAN president said that AI could complement the process by analysing election data and flagging unusual voting patterns for further investigation by relevant authorities.
According to him, the combination of blockchain and AI can provide stronger mechanisms for preserving electoral evidence and detecting anomalies in election processes.
He said that the adoption of such technologies would help improve transparency, accountability and public confidence in electoral outcomes.
Ayoola urged stakeholders to explore technology-driven approaches that could strengthen existing election management systems ahead of the 2027 elections.
He said that blockchain should support electoral auditing rather than replace ballot casting, while AI should remain a decision-support tool.
“AI should never become a system that decides an election’s validity on its own,” the ITAN president said.
He said that Nigeria’s electoral technology journey had evolved from the Smart Card Reader to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing Portal.
According to him, the persistent question after elections remains whether citizens can trust the count and the processes producing declared results.
He said that Nigeria should improve existing electoral technology instead of discarding it, noting that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) already had substantial digital infrastructure.
Ayoola identified transmission, connectivity, logistics and device challenges during the 2023 elections as areas requiring targeted technological improvements.
He proposed measures including permissioned blockchain for result-sheet auditing, AI-based early warnings, stronger disinformation safeguards and pilot testing before national deployment.
Ayoola also urged collaboration with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) to establish safeguards for biometric and electoral audit information before deployment.
ITAN president also called for electoral technology pilots during by-elections before nationwide deployment, allowing weaknesses to be identified and corrected ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He urged the National Assembly to recognise cryptographic audit trails as admissible evidence in electoral disputes and provide adequate funding for electoral technology.
Ayoola said that ITAN would convene a standing electoral technology working group involving its member companies to support INEC’s technology reviews and audits.
He said that the initiative would also promote Nigerian engineers as builders and auditors of electoral systems rather than relying solely on foreign technology providers.
Ayoola said that immutable electoral auditing would require sustained collaboration among INEC, regulators, technology companies and other stakeholders before the 2027 elections.
Another keynote speaker, Mr James Agada, the National President, Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria (ISPON), said that electoral technology must produce evidence capable of surviving legal scrutiny, not merely records generated during elections.
Agada said that courts needed to establish what happened, when and where it happened, who recorded it and whether the information changed subsequently.
He said that technology systems should therefore, generate acceptable evidence packages containing original records, timestamps, device identities and integrity information.
According to him, authenticity does not mean true, as a record can genuinely originate from an authorised source while still containing false information.
He said that electoral systems must establish both authenticity and integrity, particularly by demonstrating whether information was modified during transmission or while stored.
Agada said that independent verification was essential where different systems produced conflicting figures, because courts needed more than isolated records to determine the truth.
He said that blockchain and distributed verification technologies could provide such safeguards, but their evidentiary value should also be recognised and supported by law.
Agada said that recent amendments to Nigeria’s electoral framework indicated gradual movement toward electronic evidence and a national electronic register for elections.
He said that the proposed register could provide poll-by-poll electronic information beyond the existing INEC Result Viewing Portal, although implementation details remained unclear.
