NBTE: Our Operations Being Hampered By Inadequate Manpower

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Executive Secretary of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Prof. Idris Bugaje, yesterday, lamented that the operations of the agency were being hampered because of inadequate manpower to carry out its mandate.

He said the agency has a staff strength of 330 and has about 700 institutions to visit and monitor.
Bugaje made this known in Abuja when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education to defend the 2025 Budget of the agency.
He noted: “The operations of the agency are being hampered by inadequate manpower to carry out its mandate; as such, there is need to have more staff to do the job.

“For personnel, we are looking for an improvement because we have about 700 institutions to visit and our staff strength is at 330, which is very low.”
Bugaje emphasised that similar agencies like NBTE have more staff, fewer institutions and more funds to carry out their duties.

“But our personnel cost is very low, so we want that one to be increased so that we can inject more hands to do that rotation,” he added.
On the agency’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), Bugaje said there were charges being paid by institutions, which he said are not constant.

His words: “It’s only when we go for accreditation we charge service charge. Before it was N 75,000, we have increased to 150,000 per programme. And then we give 50 per cent to the federal government. For the whole year we ended up with N25 million in IGR. Which is dismally low.”

“We have about 200 programmes, which also need to be increased, introduce contemporary ones. It’s not every year we visit every Polytechnic on all these programmes. every outing. so for that reason for this current year our IGR is extremely low, just about 25 million or so. Our capital performance for 2024 is 50 per cent. We are yet to get the remaining 50 per cent.”

Speaking, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Fuad Laguda, said there was a need for government agencies to judiciously utilise resources available to them before asking for more as their performance should determine why more resources should be allocated to them.

He noted: “Performance is very key. And that is what will help us move forward in 2025. It is an acceptable and known fact that the polytechnics are poorly funded.

“We know. But we need to justify our need for more and show why we need more. To be honest with ourselves, have we been able to do that? That is what we should answer.

“And if we speak with each other truthfully, we know we are not doing good in that aspect. Not all of us, but most of us are not doing good in that aspect. The whole essence of this committee is to bring out the best in us. And to put corrective measures where it is needed.”

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