Performance must justify improved funding for NBTE

The House Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education has identified performance as the sole condition for government agencies to request enhanced funding for their operations in 2025.

Chairman of the Commission, Fuad Laguda, said this on Friday during the presentation of the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Technical Education, Professor Idris Bugaje, during the defense of the 2025 budget organized by the Commission.

He stressed that agencies must use available resources wisely before asking for more. Their performance should determine why additional resources should be allocated.

He said: “Performance is crucial. This is what will take us forward in 2025. It is an accepted and well-known fact that polytechnics are poorly funded. We know it! But we must justify our need for more and show why we need it. To be honest with ourselves, have we been able to do it? This is the question we must answer.

“And if we speak honestly, we know that we are not doing well in this area. Not all of us, but most of us don’t perform well. The very essence of this committee is to bring out the best in us and implement corrective measures if necessary.

Justifying the need for adequate funding for the NBTE, the lawmaker stressed that technical institutions must be properly equipped to provide the necessary manpower for the national economy.

He called for better collaboration between polytechnic institutions and different stakeholders. He urged rectors to be more proactive in introducing modern programs and relevant courses suited to their immediate environment.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary had, while providing an overview of the agency’s budget execution for 2024 and proposed estimates for 2025, called for an increase in its budget allocation to recruit more staff. This would enable the NBTE to properly supervise the activities of over 700 polytechnics and other institutions across the country.

“For staff, we are looking to improve because we have around 700
institutions to visit, and our workforce is only 330 people, which is very low. Similar agencies like ours have more staff, fewer institutions and more funds to carry out their tasks, but our staff costs are very low. We want this amount to be increased so that we can inject more staff to manage these visits,” he said.

Speaking about the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the agency, the executive secretary explained that there are charges paid by institutions, which are not constant but based on specific activities. These fees are applied during accreditation visits and other activities.

The NBTE executive secretary added, “We only charge a service fee when we apply for accreditation. Previously it was N75,000 but we increased it to N150,000 per program. We then give 50 percent to the federal government. For the whole of 2024, we were left with only N25 million in IGR, which is extremely low.

“We have around 200 programs, and these need to be increased by introducing more contemporary programs. It’s not every year that we visit every polytechnic for all these programs. Therefore, for this year, our IGR is disappointing at about N25 million. Our capital performance for 2024 is 50 percent; we have not yet received the remaining 50 percent.