Alausa partners KPMG to strengthen NBTE’s institutional capacity
By Uji A Iliyasu, Abuja
The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has initiated a far-reaching restructuring of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to reposition the agency as a more effective regulator and strategic driver of Nigeria’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector.
The reform, which is being supported by KPMG Advisory Services, is aimed at strengthening NBTE’s institutional capacity, governance and operational effectiveness to enable it to better regulate and coordinate polytechnics, monotechnics and other technical institutions across the country.
Alausa disclosed this in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, on Wednesday.
He said the Federal Ministry of Education had engaged KPMG to conduct a comprehensive institutional assessment of NBTE and develop a future-ready organisational structure, governance model and operating framework for the agency.
The minister said the exercise reflects the Federal Government’s determination to ensure that institutions responsible for technical education are properly structured, adequately resourced and capable of providing effective leadership for Nigeria’s skills development agenda.
“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,” Alausa said.
He stressed that a stronger NBTE was critical to achieving the objectives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly the development of a skilled, productive and globally competitive workforce capable of supporting industrialisation, innovation and sustainable economic growth.
The minister explained that the restructuring goes beyond administrative changes, describing it as a strategic intervention to transform NBTE into a modern, agile and fit-for-purpose institution capable of driving nationwide improvements in technical and vocational education.
He said the assessment would identify gaps and opportunities for improvement in governance, organisational design, operating processes, workforce capability and service delivery.
The resulting transformation roadmap, he added, would provide a framework for aligning NBTE’s structure and operations with its statutory responsibilities and the Federal Government’s broader TVET reform agenda.
Alausa also emphasised the importance of polytechnic education within Nigeria’s TVET system, saying it must be managed in a way that prioritises skills acquisition, 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.
He said this philosophy was informing the ongoing review of polytechnic curricula and the development of National Occupational Standards (NOS) to ensure that training programmes remained responsive 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, bringing the total number of reviewed standards to 31.
The standards are expected to create a more coherent skills-development pathway covering artisan-level training, National Certificates, Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes.
Alausa said the reforms were designed to ensure that graduates of technical institutions acquired practical and market-relevant competencies that would improve employability, encourage entrepreneurship and boost national productivity.
Providing an industry perspective, Oluwole Adelokun, Partner, Strategy and Customer Solutions at KPMG Africa and KPMG in Nigeria, said the firm’s assessment had identified both significant challenges and opportunities within Nigeria’s TVET sector.
Adelokun noted that about 93 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce operates in the informal economy, while nearly 12 per cent of young people are neither in education, employment nor skills training.
He said the figures underscored the need for a more inclusive, responsive and effective skills-development system.
Despite the challenges, Adelokun said 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 talent capable of meeting labour-market demands.
Adelokun, however, identified curriculum modernisation as a major priority, noting that more than 55 per cent of assessed curricula across disciplines, including engineering, science, arts and design, were outdated.
He identified funding constraints and the existing five-year curriculum review cycle as major factors affecting the responsiveness of technical education programmes, while citing the recent revision of the agriculture curriculum as a positive development.
Responding to the findings, Alausa said the insights from the KPMG assessment, together with ongoing curriculum and skills-development reforms, would provide a strong foundation for repositioning NBTE as a more effective catalyst for technical and vocational education.
He said a restructured NBTE would be better positioned to strengthen institutional oversight, improve quality assurance and accountability, deepen collaboration with industry and ensure that technical education remained responsive to changing workforce and economic needs.
The minister reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Education’s commitment to building a TVET system anchored on industry relevance, practical competence, innovation, employability and productivity.
He described the transformation of NBTE as a critical component of Nigeria’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 realisation of President Tinubu’s vision of a highly skilled, productive, and globally competitive Nigerian workforce,” Alausa said.