Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector have called for a decisive shift toward evidence-based and data-driven policy making, as the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) rolled out key digital platforms aimed at strengthening regulation, planning and institutional accountability.
The call was made at a high-level capacity-building workshop hosted by Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), where the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, NBTE Digital Quality Assurance Platform and Data Management and Visualisation tools were presented as policy enablers for effective governance of TVET institutions nationwide.
Rector of YABATECH, Dr Engr Ibraheem Abdul in his welcome address, said sustainable education policy can no longer be built on fragmented, manual and unreliable data, stressing that digital infrastructure is now central to institutional effectiveness and national development planning.
“Policy decisions in today’s education ecosystem demand instant access to credible data, verifiable records and measurable outcomes. Without this, institutions risk falling out of regulatory alignment and losing relevance in meeting Industry and national skills priorities,” he said.
Dr Abdul explained that beyond improving administration, integrated digital systems provide policymakers with real-time insights into student enrolment, graduation rates, staffing and skills outcomes - critical indices for informed decisions on funding, accreditation and workforce planning.
He noted that digitalisation also reduces discretionary human interference, thereby strengthening transparency and curbing corruption in the system.
He commended NBTE for providing a regulatory framework that aligns digital transformation with skills development, noting that technology, when properly deployed, enhances rather than replaces hands-on training and skills acquisition.
Also speaking, the Director of Academic and Strategic Planning, NBTE, Malam Lemu, described the workshop as a deliberate policy intervention designed to harmonise institutional data flows with national education objectives.
According to him, the introduction of ERP represents a strategic consolidation of NBTE’s multiple operational portals into a single policy-support architecture capable of generating consistent and comparable data across institutions.
“With ERP, accreditation, quality assurance, staffing, student records and service portals are brought under one platform. This allows regulators and policymakers to identify trends, gaps and emerging needs, rather than responding to issues on an ad-hoc basis,” he said.
Malam Lemu added that the establishment of Data Management Units across institutions, in line with federal directives, was intended to institutionalise data governance and ensure that policy formulation at both institutional and national levels is driven by validated information rather than estimates.
Declaring the workshop open, the Executive Secretary, NBTE, Prof. Idris Bugaje, said the Board’s digital reform agenda was anchored on the need to rebuild trust in TVET data and restore confidence in policy outcomes.
He noted that manual data processes had historically weakened planning, accreditation and international credibility of Nigeria’s TVET system, adding that digital platforms now provide policymakers with traceable, auditable and real-time information.
Prof Bugaje, who was represented by his Technical Adviser on ICT, Dr Babaginda Albaba, attributed failure of policy implementation by government to unreliable data
“Policy fails when data is unreliable. With these platforms, we can plan accurately, monitor compliance, evaluate impact and make informed decisions that truly reflect the realities of our institutions,” he said.
The Executive Secretary explained that the Digital Quality Assurance Platform enables evidence-based accreditation and programme evaluation, while the Data Management Platform supports longitudinal analysis of enrolment, staffing and graduate output. He added that the ERP system will track students from admission to graduation, strengthening certification integrity and supporting labour-market-responsive policies.
He further disclosed that NBTE’s long-term vision includes AI-enabled analytics to support predictive policy modelling, reduce accreditation costs and enhance regulatory efficiency.
Participants at the workshop, including registrars, ICT directors and data management officers from TVET institutions across the South-West, were charged to serve as policy enablers by ensuring accurate data capture and compliance at institutional levels.
The workshop underscored NBTE’s resolve to reposition TVET governance through digital intelligence, policy coherence and evidence-based decision-making, as Nigeria seeks to align skills development with economic growth and global competitiveness.
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