Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training sector have called for a decisive shift toward evidence-based and data-driven policy-making in the education sector.
They made the call during a high-level capacity-building workshop hosted by Yaba College of Technology, where the Enterprise Resource Planning system, the NBTE Digital Quality Assurance Platform, and Data Management and Visualisation tools were presented as policy enablers for effective governance of TVET institutions nationwide.
In his welcome address, YABATECH Rector, Dr Ibraheem Abdul, said sustainable education policy can no longer rely on fragmented, manual, or unreliable data, emphasising that digital infrastructure is now central to institutional effectiveness and national development planning.
The event saw the National Board for Technical Education roll out key digital platforms designed to strengthen regulation, planning, and institutional accountability.
Abdul said, “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.”
Abdul added that beyond improving administration, integrated digital systems give policymakers 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, strengthening transparency and curbing corruption.
He commended NBTE for providing a regulatory framework that aligns digital transformation with skills development, stressing that technology, when properly deployed, enhances rather than replaces hands-on training and skills acquisition.
Also speaking, NBTE Director of Academic and Strategic Planning, Malam Lemu, described the workshop as a deliberate policy intervention to harmonise institutional data flows with national education objectives.
“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.
Lemu explained that the establishment of Data Management Units across institutions, in line with federal directives, aims to institutionalise data governance and ensure policy formulation at both institutional and national levels is driven by validated information rather than estimates.
Declaring the workshop open, NBTE Executive Secretary Prof Idris Bugaje, represented by his Technical Adviser on ICT, Dr Babaginda Albaba, said the Board’s digital reform agenda is anchored on the need to rebuild trust in TVET data and restore confidence in policy outcomes.
“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,” Bugaje said.
He added 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.
The ERP system will track students from admission to graduation, strengthening certification integrity and supporting labour-market-responsive policies.
Bugaje also revealed 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.
