Dr Kazaure bows out of NBTE after 10 years as Executive Secretary

Dr Masa’ud Kazaure, on Monday, bowed out of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) as its Executive Secretary (ES) having served the board for 10 years.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Kazaure was appointed as the ES of the board in October 2010 and served two terms of five years each.

Kazaure pegged his performance at 85 per cent while handing over the affairs of the board to the Director, Physical Planning and Development, Mr Ekpenyong Ekpenyong, who will act as NBTE executive secretary.

He said: “While I was taking over, I gave a four-page speech indicating my aspiration and vision. I have sat down and looked at the speech critically and scored my performance at 85 per cent.

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“This is because when I took over as the ES, there were a total of 162 Technical Vocational Enterprise and Training (TVET) institutions across the country, but as at today, we have 618 TVET institutions.

“These include 144 polytechnics, 53 colleges of agriculture, 54 colleges of health sciences, 31 specialised institutions, 159 innovation enterprise institutions, 123 approved technical colleges and 78 vocational enterprise institutions.

“I am also leaving behind 324 staffs of the board, 31,091 academic staffs and 32,926 nonacademic staffs in the TVET institutions, as well as 328,106 National Diploma (ND) and National Innovative Diploma (NID) students.

“There are also 139,980 Higher National Diploma (HND) and Higher National Innovation Diploma (HIND) students.

“In effect, in the TVET sector, I am leaving behind 64,017 staff, with a total enrolment of 468,086 students.”

On staff welfare, Kazaure said that his administration had ensured that every staff was promoted as and when due, including access to housing scheme and auction of vehicles to staff with no vehicle.

He added that to address staff’s placement and stagnation, the board was reorganised from four departments to nine departments to create opportunities for the staff members to move up the ladder.

Kazaure added that his administration has done much in staff development, pointing out that when he took over as ES, there was only one PhD holder, “but today there were about 10 PhD holders in the board.”

He said that from 2014 to date, the board had 83 curricula which were either reviewed or developed as well as 53 National Occupational Standard.

The ES said that the board had equally done much in the area of entrepreneurship development, adding that all the TVET institutions have entrepreneurship development centres.

Kazaure also said that the bard has equally done very well on bilateral relations and cooperation with notable organisations like DFID, World Bank, UNESCO, AfDB, Japan International Cooperation Agency, labour unions and other organisations.

“We also established a Strategy and Intelligence Unit under the office of the ES and addressed the menace of satellite and illegal campuses.

“There was also the issue of routine accreditation visits of TVET institutions to ensure quality and maintain 70/30 ration in favour of technology courses,” he said.

He added that other achievements included the creation of the NBTE Centre of Excellence for the Nigeria UNESCO Technical and Vocational Enterprise project and open distance learning.

Kazaure explained that the centre was recognised as a capacity-building centre across the West African sub-region, adding that it has been able to establish a partnership with local and international organisations.

The outgoing ES, however, considered his inability to computerise the board as a great failure and advised whoever would be appointed the new ES to take it up.

He thanked the Chairman and Members of the Governing Board of the NBTE and members of the Management Committee for their overwhelming support.

Kazaure, who broke down in tears, also thanked his driver, Mr Tukur Ahmadu and all staff of the board for their overwhelming support to him, and attributed all the successes to their sacrifices and dedication to duty.

Responding, the Acting ES, who described Kazaure’s tenure as a “success story”,  said his vision would be passed on until it comes to fruition and urged the staff to support the interim management to succeed.

Similarly, Alhaji Musa Hadeja, President, Technical Education Board Senior Staff Association, acknowledged the improved welfare of staff and non-interference in union activities by the outgoing ES. (NAN)