The federal government has commenced a major restructuring of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to enable it to achieve Nigeria’s 93 per cent informal workforce and align technical education with industry and job opportunities.

According to the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, the reform, to be driven through a KPMG-led assessment, involves the rollout of 31 National Occupational Standards designed to make training more practical and employment-focused.

In a statement yesterday, his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, explained that the curriculum review exercise was supported with N1 billion from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). He disclosed that this has produced 27 new National Occupational Standards and reviewed four existing standards, bringing the total to 31.

Alausa said the standards extend beyond tertiary-level training to the establishment of a clearer skills pathway from artisan-level training through the National Certificate, Ordinary National Diploma, and Higher National Diploma programmes.

Meanwhile, the minister said the repositioning of NBTE is central to President Ahmed Tinubu’s administration’s aim of ensuring that polytechnics, monotechnics and other technical institutions produce graduates with skills that translate directly into jobs, entrepreneurship and productivity.

He disclosed that the ministry has engaged KPMG to undertake a comprehensive review of NBTE and to develop a functional organisational structure and operational framework to strengthen the agency’s capacity to supervise and coordinate institutions under its mandate.

The engagement with KPMG, he explained, was informed by the need to ensure that NBTE is properly structured internally and operationally to provide the leadership required to drive technical and vocational education and training nationwide.

Alausa explained that the success of President Tinubu’s vision for TVET depends significantly on the effectiveness of the institutions responsible for implementing and supervising the system, adding that the NBTE must therefore be repositioned as a strong and fit-for-purpose agency.

Meanwhile, the minister noted that KPMG’s assignment is to identify institutional gaps and recommend changes to NBTE’s internal mechanisms, structure and processes.

He stressed that the ministry’s approach recognises polytechnic education as part of the broader TVET ecosystem, adding that it must therefore be managed within a skills-focused framework.

According to him, “everything about the polytechnic is technical, vocational education and training. It is all about skills. We are simply discussing skills,” Alausa said.

This understanding, he noted, informed the ongoing review of polytechnic curricula and the development of National Occupational Standards to ensure that training is more closely aligned with practical skills, industry requirements and opportunities for employment and enterprise.

Providing an industry perspective, Partner and Head of Tax, Regulatory and People Services at KPMG Africa and KPMG in Nigeria, Adewale Ajayi, said the firm’s assessment highlighted both the challenges confronting Nigeria’s technical and vocational education system and the opportunities available if the system is properly structured and strengthened.

According to Ajayi, about 93 per cent of Nigeria’s workforce is engaged in informal employment, while approximately 12 per cent of young people are not in education, employment or technical training.

However, he noted that Nigeria performs strongly on the employability of TVET graduates, with only Singapore ranking ahead of the country among the markets assessed, indicating TVET’s potential to produce graduates with skills relevant to labour-market demands.

Ajayi further called for greater attention to curriculum development, noting that over 55 per cent of existing curricula assessed were outdated, including programmes in engineering, science, arts and design.