The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has hired KPMG, a world-class advisory services provider, to transform the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) into a high-performing regulator and strategic enabler of Nigeria’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem.
The reform initiative is designed to improve the NBTE’s institutional effectiveness, governance architecture and operational capacity to enable the Board to more effectively regulate, coordinate and support polytechnics, monotechnics and other technical institutions, while aligning skills development with Nigeria’s economic and workforce needs.
KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing audit, tax, and advisory services to local and international organizations, government bodies and institutions in Nigeria.
The Minister, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, said the Federal Ministry of Education had engaged KPMG Advisory Services to evaluate NBTE and come up with a future-fit organizational structure, governance model and operating framework.
According to Alausa, the exercise is aimed at strengthening the capacity, governance and service delivery of NBTE, in line with the Federal Government’s skills development agenda.
He said that a stronger NBTE was critical to achieving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and developing a skilled, productive and globally competitive workforce.
The assessment will identify gaps in governance, organizational design, processes, workforce capacity and service delivery and provide recommendations to improve the Board’s effectiveness, accountability and impact.
The generated transformation roadmap will provide a clear framework for aligning NBTE’s structure and operations with its statutory responsibilities and the broader TVET reform agenda of the Federal Government.
Alausa restated that polytechnic education is an integral part of Nigeria’s broader TVET ecosystem and must therefore be managed within the framework that prioritizes skills acquisition, employability, innovation and enterprise development.
This philosophy is guiding the ongoing review of polytechnic curricula and the development of National Occupational Standards (NOS) to ensure that training programs remain relevant to industry needs, technological advancements and emerging economic opportunities, he said.
With support from a ₦1 billion intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), the curriculum modernization program has created 27 new National Occupational Standards and reviewed four existing ones, making a total of 31 reviewed standards.
The standards offer a more coherent and integrated skills development pathway across the education system, including artisan-level training, National Certificates, Ordinary National Diploma (OND) and Higher National Diploma (HND) programs.
The Minister stressed that the reforms are intended to ensure that graduates from technical education come out with practical, market-relevant competencies that enhance employability, foster entrepreneurship and improve national productivity.
From an industry perspective, Oluwole Adelokun, Partner, Strategy and Customer Solutions at KPMG Africa and KPMG in Nigeria, noted challenges and opportunities in Nigeria’s TVET sector. He said, “93 percent of the workforce is in the informal sector and nearly 12 percent of young people are neither in education, employment nor skills training.
He said Nigeria is second to Singapore in TVET graduate employability but pointed to the need to modernize the outdated curricula, overcome funding constraints and reduce the five-year curriculum review cycle.
