Nigeria Joins WorldSkills

The Journey to Membership

For more than thirteen years, Concinnity has played a leading role in advancing Nigeria’s participation in the WorldSkills movement. Led by Yemisi Akinrinade, CEO and Managing Partner of Concinnity, the journey brought together government, TVET institutions, industry stakeholders and skills development leaders around a shared ambition: to connect Nigeria’s skills ecosystem with global standards of excellence.

The journey began in 2013 with an early expression of interest and a landmark engagement in Birmingham between stakeholders from Nigeria’s TVET system and the WorldSkills International Board. From that pivotal moment, Concinnity helped build stakeholder alignment, champion the case for Nigeria’s participation, and sustain the institutional relationships and strategic engagement required to advance the ambition through successive stages of the membership process.

That effort culminated in a defining milestone on 9 September 2024, when Nigeria was formally welcomed as the 89th Member of WorldSkills International at the WorldSkills General Assembly in Lyon. The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), the government agency responsible for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), led Nigeria’s membership application, with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), giving Nigeria a formal place within the global WorldSkills community

The significance of the achievement extends beyond membership itself. Nigeria’s admission created the platform for the development and institutionalisation of WorldSkills Nigeria, providing a formal mechanism through which Nigeria can participate in international skills activities, benchmark its TVET system against global standards and build its national skills capability.

At the heart of this journey was Concinnity, the originator and enduring custodian of the vision, led by Yemisi Akinrinade. Its contribution extended beyond advocacy to the sustained strategic engagement, stakeholder mobilisation and institutional groundwork required to move the ambition from concept towards national implementation.

The contribution has since received public recognition from the institutions directly involved. In January 2026, at the inauguration of the WorldSkills Nigeria National Team Committee, Prof. Idris Muhammad Bugaje, Executive Secretary of NBTE, paid tribute to Akinrinade for her “tireless advocacy since 2013” and her personal support towards Nigeria’s initial membership obligations. (Fmino)

WorldSkills International subsequently recorded the recognition in its own account of the committee’s inauguration. In its March 2026 report, WorldSkills stated that Prof. Bugaje thanked Yemisi Akinrinade as “the driving force behind Nigeria’s membership in WorldSkills.” The report also confirmed that Nigeria became the 89th Member of WorldSkills in 2024. (WorldSkills)

This recognition reflects a sustained body of strategic and institutional work, rather than a single advocacy campaign.

Concinnity’s Role

During the formative years of Nigeria’s WorldSkills journey, Concinnity contributed across these interconnected areas:

Driving the Membership Journey: Concinnity helped advance the long-term effort to secure Nigeria’s participation in WorldSkills, building the case for membership and cultivating stakeholder consensus across the TVET ecosystem.

Shaping the National Institutional Architecture: Concinnity contributed to the conceptualisation and early institutional structuring that provided a foundation for what would become WorldSkills Nigeria.

Building International Engagement: Concinnity helped establish and sustain relationships connecting Nigerian stakeholders with WorldSkills International and the wider global skills community, creating channels for knowledge exchange, collaboration and international engagement.

Connecting Nigeria to Global Skills Practice: Concinnity supported the engagement of Nigerian TVET stakeholders with international skills programmes, bootcamps, competitions and other learning opportunities, helping expose the Nigerian system to global approaches and standards.

Mobilising Technical and Institutional Support: Concinnity sustained advocacy for the technical assistance, funding and institutional commitments required to move the WorldSkills ambition from concept towards an operational national platform.

Building Stakeholder Alignment: Concinnity engaged and coordinated stakeholders across government, industry and the TVET system, helping create the alignment and collective commitment required to advance Nigeria’s membership journey and lay the foundations for WorldSkills Nigeria.

Together, these efforts helped create the conditions for Nigeria to move from aspiration to participation and, ultimately, to formal membership of WorldSkills International, paving the way for the establishment of WorldSkills Nigeria.

WorldSkills Nigeria: Turning Global Membership into National Impact

Nigeria’s membership of WorldSkills International is the foundation. WorldSkills Nigeria is the national platform through which that membership must now be translated into impact.

The establishment and institutionalisation of WorldSkills Nigeria gives Nigeria a mechanism to connect its TVET ecosystem to the global WorldSkills movement, bring international standards and practices into the national skills system, and create structured pathways for Nigerian institutions, trainers, experts, industry and young people to participate in global skills development.

For WorldSkills Nigeria, membership creates important opportunities:

Benchmark Nigeria Against Global Standards: WorldSkills Nigeria can serve as a national bridge between Nigeria’s TVET system and internationally recognised standards of skills excellence. Through access to WorldSkills Occupational Standards, competitions and international expertise, Nigerian institutions can benchmark curricula, training practices, assessment approaches and occupational competencies against global expectations.

This creates an opportunity not simply to participate internationally, but to use international benchmarks to strengthen the quality and relevance of skills development within Nigeria.

Build a National System for Skills Excellence: WorldSkills Nigeria provides a platform for moving skills competitions from isolated activities to a more structured national system for identifying, developing and recognising excellence.

It can establish pathways through which talented young Nigerians are identified and prepared for national and international competitions, while strengthening the capabilities of trainers, assessors, experts and institutions that support them.

Over time, this can help create a culture in which excellence in technical and vocational skills is recognised, celebrated and rewarded.

Connect Education, Industry and Opportunity: WorldSkills Nigeria can become an important convening platform for government, TVET institutions and industry, helping ensure that skills development remains closely connected to the needs of the economy.

Its role can extend beyond competitions to include industry engagement, occupational standards, knowledge exchange, technical assistance and exposure to emerging skills requirements. This creates an opportunity to make TVET more responsive to employers and more attractive to young people as a credible pathway into productive employment and entrepreneurship.

Give Nigeria a Platform on the Global Stage: Through WorldSkills Nigeria, Nigeria can participate more systematically in the international skills community, including WorldSkills assemblies, programmes, exchanges and competitions.

This gives Nigerian institutions, experts and young people opportunities to learn from international peers, share Nigerian experience and build relationships across the global skills ecosystem. It also gives Nigeria a stronger voice in conversations about the future of skills, workforce development and technical education.

From Membership to National Impact

Membership opened the door. WorldSkills Nigeria must now build a culture of skills excellence and global competitiveness.

The significance of membership, therefore, lies not simply in Nigeria having a seat within WorldSkills International. Its real value will be measured by what WorldSkills Nigeria builds and delivers in Nigeria.

The opportunity now is to develop WorldSkills Nigeria into a credible, well-governed and sustainable national institution: one capable of mobilising government and industry, strengthening TVET institutions, developing world-class skills talent, connecting Nigeria to global standards and creating pathways for Nigerian young people to compete and excel internationally.

Thirteen years of persistence turned an aspiration into a national platform for skills excellence, global benchmarking and international collaboration.

For Concinnity, the journey demonstrates the value of sustained, partner-led engagement in helping institutions navigate complexity, build alignment and turn long-term strategic ambitions into enduring national outcomes.