SASASNET-NBTE TRAIN STAKEHOLDERS ON RPL IN ABUJA, NIGERIA

Sub-Saharan Africa Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network (SASASNET) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) in Nigeria, with funding from the federal Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), have commenced a five-day Train-the-Trainer Workshop on Recognition for Prior Learning (RPL) taking place in the Nigerian Capital,

Abuja, from 14 – 18 April, 2025.

This national training, which kicked-off today, Monday, 14 April, at the Chelsea Hotel, has

drawn 31 participants as policy makers, trainers and quality assurance managers coming from across Nigeria, representing stakeholders from the relevant federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), awarding and professional bodies, a cross section of federal and state

technical universities and polytechnics, other public and private TVET providers and other stakeholders from the national skills ecosystem. The training is designed to equip trainers with the requisite skills and methodologies to assess and certify individuals based on their prior learning experiences and ensuring full alignment with the national qualification framework.

Hon. Ousman Sillah, Secretary General of the Sub-Saharan Africa Skills and Apprenticeship Stakeholders Network (SASASNET), is attending the Train-the-Trainer Workshop as the Rapporteur General and one of the facilitators of this national capacity building programme.

The training is conducted by two internationally certified trainers or consultants on RPL in the persons of Dr. Kaylash Allgoo, SASASNET Country Focal Person (CFP) for Mauritius and Lead Trainer, and Architect Nyamai Wambua, Deputy SASASNET Focal Person (CFP) for Kenya and CEO, Kenya National Federation of Jua Kali.

In his opening statement, Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje, Executive Secretary of NBTE, who also doubles as the founding Continental Chairperson of SASASNET, described RPL as “a low hanging fruit that can be taken advantage of especially in Nigeria where 75 percent of the workforce are in the informal economy”, adding that the informal workforce in some other African countries is 85 percent or above.

He said RPL seeks to formalise the informal sector to enable the skills persons to know their levels of competence through the process of assessment and certification.

Prof. Bugaje hailed the Federal Ministry of Education in its efforts and drive to rebrand TVET in Nigeria to ensure its vitality in propelling industrialisation and economic

development. He added that the efforts to invest in skills development and in making history ‘the broken window syndrome’, which depicts the neglect of TVET facilities, are highly

welcome.

NBTE Executive Secretary said industries can only be found in two states in Nigeria when the potential and latent talent exist for the country to industrialised, citing the Lagos Ikeja Computer Village and other places in the country where real innovation and production of quality products are taking place. “We need to support them to develop their own brand

names for these quality products to reach international markets as it is only Rwanda that is producing phones in Africa when Nigerian tech experts are doing a similar thing but not marketed,” he emphasised.

Speaking earlier, Hon. Sillah, in his remarks, said this national capacity building for trainers and quality assurance managers in Nigeria which is facilitated by SASASNET in

collaboration with NBTE will be paraded as a model for member countries to emulate. “This collaboration is part of the mandate of SASASNET to build-up a pool of resource persons, experts or consultants from amongst its membership to be deployed to conduct capacity

building in our areas of interest and on the request of member countries,” he said.

The SASASNET Secretary General said “If we are interested in building a productive workforce, eradicating poverty, creating employment, promoting sustainable development, we need not look any further or resort to anything but to support skills and apprenticeship development.” He added that “this is what RPL is coming to do to help us recognise the

competencies and quality assure the skills of the informal sector workforce.”

Hon. Sillah said SASASNET will advocating and engaging African governments and other stakeholders as well as development partners to embrace and support the institutionalisation

of RPL in the skills and apprenticeship ecosystem to support social inclusivity and economic development in Africa.

Mrs. Nabila Muhamed, Technical Assistant (TA) to the Federal Minister of Education, deputising the minister, welcomed the participants and resource persons to what she

described as a “ground-breaking event”. She expressed the commitment of government in revolutionising skills development in Nigeria.

“The government is fully committed to this initiative and that we want this to be the start of formalising the informal sector in Nigeria,” she said. She added that this show of

commitment should also sprinkle down to the implementers as well.

Dr. Kaylash Allgoo is an international consultant in education and training and has over the past 30 years served in various senior leadership capacities. Following the years spent in the private sector, he went over to the Technical, Vocational, Educational and Training (TVET) sector where he has served as CEO of the Mauritius Qualifications Authority, the regulatory body of TVET sector from 2006 to 2014. Under his leadership the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) was firmly integrated in the Mauritian Education system as well as the mechanism for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) was successfully developed and

implemented.

Architect Nyamai Wambua from Kenya, is a trained Architect, a graduate from the School of Architecture and Building Sciences of the Jomo Kenya University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and a member of the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK). An

International Labour Organization (ILO) certified Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Quality Apprenticeships Expert,

Mr. Pascal Durrand is an international expert from the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) of the French Government who is providing technical assistance to NBTE and SASASNET Secretariat in Abuja.