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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has commenced a far-reaching restructuring of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), engaging KPMG Advisory Services to reposition the agency as a more effective regulator of Nigeria’s technical and vocational education system.
Alausa said the reform was aimed at strengthening NBTE’s institutional effectiveness, governance structure and operational capacity to enable it to more effectively regulate, coordinate and support polytechnics, monotechnics and other technical institutions across the country.
He said KPMG had been engaged by the Federal Ministry of Education to undertake a comprehensive assessment of NBTE and develop a future-ready organisational structure, governance model and operating framework for the agency.
According to him, the exercise forms part of the Federal Government’s broader efforts to reposition the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
“However, the success of the reforms depends not only on curriculum development and infrastructure, but also on the strength and effectiveness of the institutions responsible for implementation and oversight,” he said.
Alausa noted that a stronger NBTE was critical to developing a skilled, productive and globally competitive workforce capable of supporting industrialisation, innovation and sustainable economic growth.
He explained that the restructuring would go beyond administrative changes, with the assessment expected to identify gaps and opportunities in governance, organisational design, operating processes, workforce capability and service delivery.
The minister expressed optimism that the transformation roadmap would provide a framework for aligning NBTE’s structure and operations with its statutory responsibilities and the Federal Government’s wider TVET reform agenda.
Alausa also stressed the importance of polytechnic education within the country’s TVET ecosystem, saying technical education must prioritise skills acquisition, employability, innovation and enterprise development.
He said the philosophy was already informing the ongoing review of polytechnic curricula and the development of National Occupational Standards (NOS), to ensure that training programmes remained relevant to industry requirements, technological advancement and emerging economic opportunities.
The minister disclosed that the curriculum modernisation programme, supported by a N1 billion intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), had produced 27 new National Occupational Standards and updated four existing standards, bringing the total number of reviewed standards to 31.
He said the standards were designed to create a more coherent skills-development pathway spanning artisan-level training, National Certificate programmes, Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes.
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Partner, Strategy and Customer Solutions at KPMG Africa and KPMG in Nigeria, Oluwole Adelokun, said the firm’s assessment had identified significant structural challenges within Nigeria’s TVET landscape, alongside opportunities that could be unlocked through targeted reforms and institutional strengthening.
Adelokun said about 93 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce operated in the informal economy, while nearly 12 per cent of young people were neither in education, employment nor skills training.
He said the figures underscored 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 TVET system to produce industry-ready graduates capable of meeting labour-market demands.
Adelokun, however, identified curriculum modernisation as a major priority, saying more than 55 per cent of assessed curricula across disciplines, including engineering, science, arts and design, were outdated.
He also identified funding constraints and the existing five-year curriculum review cycle as factors limiting the responsiveness of technical education to changing industry needs.
The KPMG partner cited the recent revision of the agriculture curriculum as a positive example of progress in addressing the challenge.
Responding to the findings, Alausa said insights from the KPMG engagement, together with ongoing curriculum and skills-development reforms, would provide the foundation for repositioning NBTE as a more effective catalyst for technical and vocational education.
He said the restructured agency would be better equipped to strengthen oversight of institutions under its mandate, improve quality assurance and accountability, deepen collaboration with industry, and ensure that technical education remained responsive to evolving 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 the Federal Government’s human-capital development strategy, adding that the ultimate objective was to build a more agile and future-ready institution capable of supporting the development of a highly skilled and globally competitive Nigerian workforce.
