Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has commenced a comprehensive restructuring of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), with KPMG Advisory Services engaged to reposition the agency and improve its regulation of Nigeria’s technical and vocational education system.

Alausa said the reform would focus on enhancing NBTE’s institutional effectiveness, governance structure and operational capacity, enabling the agency to more effectively regulate, coordinate and support polytechnics, monotechnics and other technical institutions across the country.

The minister disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Education had engaged KPMG to conduct a comprehensive assessment of NBTE and develop a future-ready organisational structure, governance model and operating framework for the agency.

According to Alausa, the exercise is part of the Federal Government’s wider efforts to reposition the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector in accordance 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 said strengthening NBTE was essential to producing a skilled, productive and globally competitive workforce capable of driving industrialisation, innovation and sustainable economic growth.

He explained that the restructuring would extend beyond administrative adjustments, as the assessment would examine gaps and opportunities in governance, organisational design, operating processes, workforce capability and service delivery.

The minister expressed confidence that the transformation roadmap would establish a framework for aligning NBTE’s structure and operations with its statutory responsibilities and the Federal Government’s broader TVET reform agenda.

He also highlighted the strategic role of polytechnic education within Nigeria’s TVET ecosystem, stressing that technical education must place emphasis on skills acquisition, employability, innovation and enterprise development.

Alausa said these priorities were already shaping the ongoing review of polytechnic curricula and the development of National Occupational Standards (NOS). The objective, he explained, is to ensure that training programmes remain aligned with industry requirements, technological advancement and emerging economic opportunities.

The minister further disclosed that the curriculum modernisation programme, backed by a N1 billion intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), had resulted in the production of 27 new National Occupational Standards and the updating of four existing standards. This brings the total number of reviewed standards to 31.

He said the standards were intended to establish a more coherent skills-development pathway covering artisan-level training, National Certificate programmes, Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes.

Partner, Strategy and Customer Solutions at KPMG Africa and KPMG in Nigeria, Oluwole Adelokun, said the firm’s assessment had revealed significant structural challenges within Nigeria’s TVET landscape, while also identifying opportunities that could be unlocked through targeted reforms and institutional strengthening.

Adelokun said approximately 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 highlighted the need for a skills-development system that was more inclusive and responsive.

Despite the challenges identified, Adelokun said Nigeria recorded strong performance in the employability of TVET graduates, ranking second only to Singapore among the countries assessed.

According to him, the finding showed the potential of Nigeria’s TVET system to produce industry-ready graduates equipped to respond to labour-market demands.

However, Adelokun 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 pointed to funding constraints and the existing five-year curriculum review cycle as factors restricting the ability of technical education to respond quickly to changing industry requirements.

The KPMG partner cited the recent revision of the agriculture curriculum as a positive example of efforts to address the challenge.

Responding to the assessment, Alausa said the insights generated through the KPMG engagement, alongside ongoing curriculum and skills-development reforms, would form the basis for repositioning NBTE as a more effective catalyst for technical and vocational education.

He said the restructured agency would be better positioned to strengthen oversight of institutions within its mandate, improve quality assurance and accountability, enhance collaboration with industry, and ensure that technical education remained responsive to changing workforce and economic requirements.

The minister reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Education’s commitment to developing a TVET system built around industry relevance, practical competence, innovation, employability and productivity.

Alausa described the transformation of NBTE as a critical element of the Federal Government’s human-capital development strategy. He added that the ultimate goal was to establish a more agile and future-ready institution capable of supporting the development of a highly skilled and globally competitive Nigerian workforce.

Source: The Sun