Nigeria’s skills deficit: Time to close the gap between graduates and labour market

By Moses Emani Salami

The mismatch between graduate profiles and labour market needs has become one of Nigeria’s biggest development bottlenecks. According to the World Bank and several think-tank reports, employers consistently lament that Nigerian graduates are not job-ready. They often lack problem-solving capacity, technical know-how, creativity, and the soft skills required for 21st-century industries.

Nigeria today stands at a dangerous crossroads. Every year, thousands of graduates leave our universities and polytechnics with certificates in hand, yet the majority of them remain unemployable. Why? Because the labour market does not want mere certificates—it wants skills, competence, and certification that proves real-world ability.

As Prof. Idris Bugaje, Executive Secretary of NBTE, has repeatedly said: “What Nigeria needs today is skills, not degrees.” This truth became glaring when Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, was building his multi-billion-dollar refinery. Despite Nigeria’s army of graduates, the project imported thousands of skilled workers from India, Pakistan, and China because our local graduates simply lacked the right skills and internationally recognized certifications to do the job. This reality is painful, but it is also a wake-up call.

The Growing Skills Gap: The mismatch between graduate profiles and labour market needs has become one of Nigeria’s biggest development bottlenecks. According to the World Bank and several think-tank reports, employers consistently lament that Nigerian graduates are not job-ready. They often lack problem-solving capacity, technical know-how, creativity, and the soft skills required for 21st-century industries.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, WTO Director-General, has also highlighted that for Africa to compete globally, our focus must shift from paper qualifications to practical skills development, digital literacy, and technical competencies.

Bridging the Divide: Encouragingly, the Federal Ministry of Education has introduced the TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) Initiative, aimed at equipping young Nigerians with market-relevant skills. In line with this, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has mandated all institutions under its purview to integrate Mandatory Skills Qualifications (MSQ) into their academic programmes. This means that graduates will leave not just with a National Diploma (ND) or Higher National Diploma (HND), but with an employable skill and certification to match.

However, for this vision to succeed, NBTE must be heavily funded and supported by government. As the regulatory body overseeing polytechnics, monotechnics, and technical colleges, NBTE holds the key to repositioning Nigeria’s workforce. Without strong financial backing, the dream of a skills-driven economy will remain rhetoric.

A Call to Action: Nigeria cannot afford to keep producing graduates who swell the ranks of the unemployed. We cannot keep watching multinationals bypass our youths for foreign workers. We cannot keep ignoring the fact that our graduates lack the right skills and the right certifications.

What we need now is urgent action: 1. Fund NBTE adequately to scale up TVET nationwide. 2. Make MSQ compulsory in all tertiary institutions. 3. Link training with industry demands so that graduates are employable from day one. 4. Re-orient our national mindset to value skills as much as, if not more than, degrees.

As Prof. Bugaje rightly insists, “Skills, not degrees, will drive Nigeria’s future.” The time to act is now. If we don’t, Nigeria’s youth will continue to be left behind while other nations move forward with skilled, productive, and competitive workforces.

Moses Emani Salami writes in from Auchi, Edo State.