The Federal Government has engaged KPMG Advisory Services to undertake a comprehensive assessment and restructuring of the National Board for Technical Education, NBTE, as part of efforts to strengthen oversight of polytechnics and technical institutions and accelerate skills development across the country.

The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, disclosed this on Wednesday, saying the transformation was aimed at repositioning NBTE as a high-performing regulator and strategic driver of Nigeria’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET, ecosystem.

According to him, the reform will strengthen the board’s governance structure, institutional effectiveness, and operational capacity to enable it to regulate, coordinate, and support polytechnics, monotechnics, and other technical institutions more effectively.

In a statement issued by Ikharo Attah, Special Adviser (Media and Communications) to the minister, Alausa said the engagement of KPMG reflected the ministry’s determination to ensure that institutions responsible for technical education were properly structured, adequately resourced, and equipped to drive the country’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,” the minister said.

He said a stronger NBTE was critical to achieving President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and developing a skilled, productive and globally competitive workforce capable of supporting industrialisation, innovation and sustainable economic growth.

Alausa explained that the restructuring would go 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 reforms in technical and vocational education.

He said the assessment would identify institutional gaps and opportunities for improvement in governance, organisational design, operating processes, workforce capability and service delivery.

According to the minister, the exercise will produce a transformation roadmap to align NBTE’s structure and operations with its statutory responsibilities and the Federal Government’s broader TVET reform agenda.

Alausa also stressed the importance of polytechnic education to Nigeria’s wider TVET system, saying it must be driven by 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.

The minister said the philosophy was already guiding the ongoing review of polytechnic curricula and development of National Occupational Standards, NOS, to ensure that training remained relevant to industry needs, technological advancement and emerging economic opportunities.

He said the curriculum modernisation programme, supported by a N1bn intervention from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, produced 27 new National Occupational Standards and updated four existing standards, bringing the number of reviewed standards to 31.

Alausa said the standards would provide a more coherent skills development pathway covering artisan-level training, National Certificates, Ordinary National Diploma and Higher National Diploma programmes.

He said the reforms were designed to ensure that graduates of technical institutions acquire practical, market-relevant competencies that improve employability, encourage entrepreneurship, and boost national productivity.

Speaking from the industry perspective, Oluwole Adelokun, Partner, Strategy and Customer Solutions at KPMG Africa and KPMG in Nigeria, said the firm’s assessment identified significant structural challenges in Nigeria’s TVET system as well as opportunities that could be unlocked through targeted reforms and institutional strengthening.

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 underscored the need for a more inclusive and responsive 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 Nigerian TVET system’s potential to produce industry-ready workers 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 identified funding constraints and the existing five-year curriculum review cycle as major limitations to curriculum responsiveness, while describing the recent review of the agriculture curriculum as a positive development.

Responding to the findings, Alausa said the KPMG assessment, combined 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 equipped to strengthen oversight of institutions under its mandate, improve quality assurance and accountability, deepen collaboration with industry and ensure technical education remained responsive to changing workforce and economic needs.

Alausa reaffirmed the Federal Ministry of Education’s commitment to 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.

“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,” the minister said.