The House of Representatives has promised to examine the KPMG report on the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and to make recommendations aimed at resolving the challenges facing the Board.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education, Hon. Fuad Kayode Laguda, gave the assurance on Wednesday during an oversight session with the Board’s management.
The Federal Government engaged KPMG Advisory Services in August to carry out a comprehensive assessment and restructuring of the NBTE.
The exercise forms part of efforts to strengthen oversight of polytechnics and technical institutions and to accelerate skills development across the country.
Speaking to journalists after the session at the NBTE headquarters, Laguda said the committee had asked management to hand over the report so that members could read and analyse it before reaching any decision.
He admitted that the lawmakers had not seen the document and only learned of it that day. According to him, the committee wants to review the findings and recommendations before drawing conclusions.
On the issue of inadequate funding, Laguda said the House would work to improve the Board’s finances and was also considering ways to widen its internally generated revenue base.
He explained that the responsibility runs in both directions, covering what the agency receives from the government as well as what it earns on its own.
The chairman added that the committee had requested other documents connected with the issues raised by the Executive Secretary and his team, and would respond appropriately once they are supplied.
On the amendment of the NBTE Act, Laguda said the committee was already working on the bill and would ensure it receives speedy consideration.
He said the Board should make a better case for additional staff, though in his view it could still do what is required with the personnel it has, even if the workforce is smaller than the workload demands.
During the session, members also asked about the agency’s capital budget from 2024 to date and demanded details of its contracts and sources of internally generated revenue.
Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the NBTE, Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje, thanked the Speaker of the House, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, for setting up a standing committee on polytechnics.
He said the move showed the importance the legislature attaches to technical and technological education.
Bugaje told the lawmakers that the biggest problem facing the Board was a lack of funds to execute projects, noting that it had received no capital funding in the past two years.
He said the Board was also working to clamp down on illegal centres and was waiting for the amendment of the NBTE Act so that it could become a commission.
Capital projects had to be suspended, he said, but management hoped for releases in the coming days so that work could resume.
He disclosed that the KPMG report had been released and contained some startling revelations. Following its recommendation to reorganise the agency, two coordinating directors have been appointed and the Board has grown to 22 departments.
The report also found the NBTE to be poorly funded, with a comparable institution receiving four times what the Board gets.
Bugaje said, however, that internally generated revenue had risen steadily from 2024 to date. The Board earns from three sources: service charges, NBTE Consult, a company he set up on assuming office to seek training opportunities, and NBTE Hotels.
He described the hotels as globally recognised and said management hopes to expand them because of the substantial revenue they bring in.
The Executive Secretary further said the Board was easing out courses outside technology and the applied sciences from polytechnics, insisting that the institutions must return to their core and statutory training curriculum. A new curriculum in Agriculture has also been introduced in the institutions.
On the disputed NBTE land in Abuja, he said the case was still in court and management was doing its best to see it through.
