A 10-member team from the National Electoral Commission (NEC) of Sierra Leone has arrived in Nigeria for training by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), towards that country’s upcoming general elections.

A statement by Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman said that “the team of ICT and Operations personnel are in Nigeria for one week of training, study tour and experience sharing with INEC officials, in preparation for the Sierra Leonean elections fixed for November 17, 2012. They are being sponsored for the study programme by the Nigerian government.”

Mr Idowu said that the “training will involve presentations by INEC’s ICT and Voter Registry personnel on such themes as ‘Using technology to solve electoral challenges,’ ‘Philosophy and architecture of electoral systems,’ ‘Infrastructure design,’ and ‘Open Source – software and hardware,’ among others.

“By the end of the training, INEC’s personnel will have helped the Sierra Leoneans to build software solutions that they can take away with them.”

The statement said that the Sierra Leonean team is billed to tour ICT facilities at the National Data Centre, Abuja, as well as INEC’s Federal Capital Territory office.