The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education assured it would study the KPMG report on the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and recommend ways to address the challenges facing the agency.
The Chairman of the House Committee Hon. Faud Kayode Laguda gave the assurance during an oversight session with the Board’s management.
The Federal Government engaged KPMG Advisory Services in August this year to undertake a comprehensive assessment and restructuring of the NBTE as part of efforts to strengthen oversight of polytechnics and technical institutions and accelerate skills development across the country.
Speaking to reporters after the oversight visit to the NBTE headquarters Laguda said the committee had requested a copy of the report so members could study its findings and recommendations before making informed decisions.
‘The report from KPMG we have not seen it; we just heard about it today. That is why we have requested the report to study it look at the findings and recommendations before making our conclusions’ he said.
On the agency’s inadequate funding the committee chairman assured that the House would work towards improving its financial allocations. He added that lawmakers were also considering ways to strengthen the NBTE’s internally generated revenue (IGR).
‘The funding of NBTE has to be improved upon; it must be better and it is a two-way thing not just what is being received from the government but also what they are generating. So we have to look into ways to improve what they receive from the government and what they generate internally’ he said.
Laguda noted that the committee had requested additional documents relating to issues raised by the Executive Secretary and his management during the interaction. He said the committee would take appropriate action after reviewing the documents.
On the proposed amendment to the NBTE Act the chairman said work was already underway on the bill and that the committee would ensure it was considered expeditiously.
‘We’ve done so much on it already; it is an ongoing concern and that is already being worked upon’ he said.
He also called on NBTE management to provide a stronger justification for its request for additional staff noting that the agency’s workforce appeared inadequate for its responsibilities.
During the oversight session the committee questioned 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 commended the Speaker of the House Hon. Tajudeen Abbas for constituting a standing committee on polytechnics describing the move as a demonstration of the legislature’s commitment to technical and technological education.
Bugaje identified inadequate funding as the agency’s major challenge lamenting that it had not received any grant in the last two years.
‘The major challenge affecting the NBTE is funding and we are also working to clamp down on illegal centres. We are also waiting for the NBTE Act to be amended so it becomes a commission.
‘We have not received a single grant in the last two years. Capital projects had to be stopped but we are hopeful that after the elections we will have releases and work will resume’ he said.
The Executive Secretary said the funding shortfall caused significant hardship for contractors handling projects for the agency with some vowing not to return to the institution.
‘Our contractors suffered in 2024 and many of them swore that they will never come here again’ he said.
Bugaje further disclosed that the KPMG report had been released and contained significant findings on the NBTE’s operations and funding.
According to him the report recommended reorganising the agency appointing two coordinating directors and expanding its structure to 22 departments.
He said the report also found that the NBTE was poorly funded noting that the National Universities Commission (NUC) received four times more funding than the technical education regulator.
‘Another aspect of the KPMG report was that the NBTE was poorly funded. They discovered that the National Universities Commission (NUC) was receiving four times more than what the NBTE was receiving’ he said.
The Executive Secretary however said the agency’s internally generated revenue had increased steadily from 2024 to date.
He identified three major sources of IGR: service charges NBTE Consult and NBTE Hotels.
‘There are three sources of IGR: service charge then NBTE Consult a company I established when I came in. We use it to look for training. The third is NBTE Hotels. We are globally recognised and we hope to expand it because it is bringing us huge revenue’ he said.
On academic programmes in polytechnics Bugaje said the Board was working to phase out non-technology and non-applied sciences courses insisting that polytechnics must return to their core mandate of technical and vocational training.
On the disputed NBTE land in Abuja the Executive Secretary said the matter remained before the court adding that management was doing its best to resolve the issue despite the individual contesting ownership.