The National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening collaboration among African Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions to improve skills development and workforce competitiveness.
The Registrar/Chief Executive Officer of NABTEB, Dr Aminu Mohammed, stated this during the visit of a delegation from the Uganda Vocational and Technical Assessment Board (UVTAB) to the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) in Sheda, Abuja.
Mohammed described the visit as a significant step toward deepening regional cooperation in technical education, knowledge exchange and institutional benchmarking.
He said NABTEB was established to promote and regulate standards in technical and business education through credible assessment and certification systems.
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According to him, the board has sustained a tradition of excellence in assessment and certification aimed at equipping graduates with industry-relevant technical competencies required in the global economy.
Mohammed commended UVTAB for initiating cross-border learning engagements, noting that such partnerships reflected a shared commitment to raising standards in technical and vocational education across Africa.
He explained that the engagement with NERDC was strategic, given the council’s role in educational research, curriculum development and quality assurance in Nigeria.
The registrar said the work of NERDC provided the foundation for curriculum alignment and assessment development undertaken by examination bodies such as NABTEB.
“As TVET institutions across Africa confront challenges of relevance and quality, collaboration provides an opportunity to benchmark systems, share experiences and collectively improve standards,” he said.
Mohammed assured the Ugandan delegation of Nigeria’s readiness to share technical expertise, institutional frameworks and best practices that could strengthen vocational and technical assessment systems.
He added that insights from the technical sessions, particularly those focused on enhancing research capacity and institutional effectiveness, would deepen bilateral cooperation between both countries.
The NABTEB chief also commended the Executive Secretary and management of NERDC for hosting the engagement, describing the council as a centre of excellence in educational research and development within the West African sub-region.
He expressed optimism that the visit would lead to meaningful reforms, innovation and sustained partnership between Nigeria and Uganda in advancing the TVET sector.
“The benchmarking visit forms part of ongoing efforts by African countries to harmonise technical education standards, promote skills mobility and support sustainable economic development through strengthened vocational education systems,” he said.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of NERDC, Prof. Salisu Shehu, reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to strengthening technical and vocational education through regional collaboration.
Shehu expressed delight over the partnership, describing NERDC as Nigeria’s apex institution responsible for curriculum development, research and innovation across Basic, Senior Secondary and Technical Education.
He said the collaboration underscored the growing importance of harmonising Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems among African countries.
According to him, NABTEB, established by Act 70 of 1993, remains Nigeria’s foremost examination body for technical and business education.
The executive secretary explained that the benchmarking visit aligned with NABTEB’s 2025 initiative to review and validate 26 trade syllabi for technical colleges.
He said the reviewed areas included emerging fields such as smart agriculture, coding and robotics, solar photovoltaic installation and creative media.
Shehu added that NERDC would provide technical expertise to ensure that the reviewed trade curricula complied with national education policy requirements and could be adapted for adoption across other African countries.
Representative of the Minister of Education, Mr Kehinde Osinaike, said
Nigeria is transitioning from a certificate-based system to a skill-driven economy anchored on functional, practical and forward-looking curricula.
He described the study visit as an opportunity for knowledge exchange that would promote shared progress across the African continent, while expressing optimism that lessons from Nigeria’s reforms would support vocational education development in Uganda.
He added that Nigeria’s ongoing reforms under the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) had strengthened collaboration among key education agencies, particularly the NERDC, the (NBTE) and the (NABTEB).
He said the partnership ensured that curriculum research conducted by NERDC aligned with national minimum standards regulated by NBTE, while NABTEB provided competency-based assessment to certify students’ mastery of technical skills.
