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The Independent
National Electoral commission has spent about N34.4 billion on
importation of 132,000 units of data capturing machine for the 2011
voter registration exercise but Mohammed Abubakar, Minister of Science
and Technology said Nigeria may not have to spend that much again on
elections as local technologies for the same purpose are now available.

Mr Abubakar said
that “the electronic voting machine developed by the Nigeria
Communication Satellite Limited, NIGCOMSAT, can assist the nation in
biometric registration for election” and that by 2015 it will be ready
for use at the election.

The minister told
journalists in Abuja that the technology would have been used for 2011
voter registration exercise but for some logistics that are not in
place.“We have developed that capacity (production of electronic voting
machine),” he said. “There was no time for experiment and we did want
to take chances with this present voter registration, that is why we
are postponing the use of these indigenous voting machines till 2015.
Nigerian scientists and engineers have really done well with this new
feat.”

He equally stated
that there is need for the private sector to partner with the research
institutes of the ministry to commercialise their research outputs
since their mandate as a ministry ends in production of prototypes.
“Private sector has to come in. They prefer to import. We need
entrepreneurs to support us with funds so that we can meet
international standards. Nigerian scientists are coming up with
interesting research and development results,” he said.

Attahiru Jega,
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission had earlier
paid a visit to the NIGCOMSAT office where he inspected the products
and pledged his commission’s collaboration with the company.According
to Mr Jega, “INEC will partner with all stakeholders including
NIGCOMSAT to enable the nation have a credible election in 2011. I am
very pleased and I want to assure you that in whatever way we can work
together, in the interest of this country, we will be willing to do
so.”

Timasaniyi Ahmed-Rufai, Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT said that
apart from the electronic voting machine, the company has network
supporting video and voice polling that will help INEC to monitor the
election both from states, councils and INEC Headquarters.“While the
local government elections could be monitored in the state headquarters
through cameras strategically planted at the polling units, INEC
Headquarters will also be able to monitor through satellite device that
will help beam the activities of the states and local councils to the
headquarters directly.“NIGCOMSAT will be able to assist the commission
on the e-register process if given the mandate to do so,” he said.