- Alausa Moves To Reposition NBTE As Nigeria’s TVET Skills Development Regulator
- Engages KPMG to restructure NBTE, strengthen technical education
- Targets stronger polytechnics, skills development with NBTE restructuring
The Federal Government has commenced a major restructuring of the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, as part of efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET, system.
Eko Hot Blog reports that the Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Wednesday, saying the reform was aimed at repositioning NBTE as a more effective regulator and strategic driver of technical and vocational education in the country.
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As part of the exercise, the Federal Ministry of Education has engaged KPMG Advisory Services to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the board and develop a new organisational structure, governance model and operating framework.
Alausa said the initiative would strengthen NBTE’s capacity to effectively regulate, coordinate and support polytechnics, monotechnics and other technical institutions across the country.
He explained that the restructuring would examine areas including governance, organisational design, operational processes, workforce capacity and service delivery, with the aim of improving effectiveness, accountability and overall impact.
“The success of Nigeria’s TVET reforms depends not only on curriculum and infrastructure, but also on the strength and effectiveness of the institutions responsible for implementation and oversight,” the minister said.
According to him, a stronger NBTE is essential to the realisation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the broader objective of producing a skilled, productive and globally competitive workforce.
Alausa said the exercise was more than an administrative restructuring, describing it as a strategic intervention to create a modern and agile NBTE capable of responding to the changing demands of Nigeria’s economy and labour market.
He added that the resulting transformation roadmap would align the board’s structure and operations with its statutory responsibilities and the Federal Government’s wider TVET reform programme.
The minister also emphasised the importance of polytechnic education within Nigeria’s broader TVET ecosystem, saying technical education must focus on practical skills, employability, innovation and enterprise development.
“Technical and vocational education is fundamentally about skills. Everything within the polytechnic system is ultimately geared towards developing competencies that create pathways to employment, entrepreneurship, and productivity,” he said.
Alausa said the philosophy was also guiding the ongoing review of polytechnic curricula and the development of National Occupational Standards, NOS, to ensure that training remains relevant to industry requirements, technological developments and emerging economic opportunities.
The curriculum modernisation programme, supported by a N1 billion intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, has so far produced 27 new National Occupational Standards and updated four existing standards.
This brings the total number of reviewed standards to 31.
The standards are expected to create a more coherent skills development pathway spanning artisan-level training, National Certificates, Ordinary National Diploma, OND, and Higher National Diploma, HND, programmes.
The minister said the reforms were designed to ensure that graduates of technical institutions acquire practical and market-relevant competencies that would improve their employment prospects, encourage entrepreneurship and contribute to national productivity.
Providing an industry perspective, Oluwole Adelokun, Partner, Strategy and Customer Solutions at KPMG Africa and KPMG Nigeria, said the firm’s assessment identified significant structural challenges within Nigeria’s TVET system but also highlighted opportunities for improvement through targeted reforms.
Adelokun said about 93 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce operates in the informal economy, while nearly 12 per cent of young people are not engaged in education, employment or skills training.
He said the figures reinforced the need for a more inclusive and responsive skills development system.
Despite the challenges, Adelokun noted that Nigeria performed strongly in the employability of TVET graduates, ranking second only to Singapore among the countries assessed.
He said the finding demonstrated the potential of the country’s TVET system to produce industry-ready graduates capable of meeting labour market demands.
However, he identified curriculum modernisation as a major priority, noting that more than 55 per cent of assessed curricula across disciplines such as engineering, science, arts and design were outdated.
He also identified funding constraints and the existing five-year curriculum review cycle as factors affecting the responsiveness of technical education programmes.
Alausa said the findings from the KPMG assessment, combined with ongoing curriculum and skills development reforms, would provide a foundation for repositioning NBTE as a stronger catalyst for technical and vocational education.
He said a restructured NBTE would be better equipped to strengthen institutional oversight, improve quality assurance and accountability, deepen collaboration with industry and ensure that technical education responds to changing workforce and economic needs.
The minister reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Education’s commitment to building a TVET system focused on industry relevance, practical competence, innovation, employability and productivity.
He described the transformation of NBTE as a key component of the government’s human capital development strategy.
“The ultimate objective is to build a more agile, effective, and future-ready institution capable of delivering on its mandate and supporting the realization of President Tinubu’s vision of a highly skilled, productive, and globally competitive Nigerian workforce,” Alausa said.
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