In the global economy of 2026, growth is no longer determined by access to capital alone, but by human capital agility. This implies the speed at which a country can translate education into productive labour. As Belgium restructures its workforce around green industry, advanced manufacturing, and digital services, Nigeria risks entrenching a paradox: expanding tertiary enrolment alongside rising graduate unemployment.
With learning poverty affecting a majority of Nigerian youth, the challenge is not simply educational underperformance. It is an economic constraint. It is one that caps productivity, weakens competitiveness, and erodes the demographic dividend. Addressing it requires a shift from certificate accumulation to competency formation, and here, Belgium’s dual-track education model offers a useful comparative lens.
When Social Policy Becomes Economic Policy
During my years in public office as Green Councillor for Social Affairs, I encountered a recurring dilemma with clear economic implications. Students on public income support required decisions that balanced aspiration with sustainability.
In some cases, the responsible choice was to recommend withdrawal from university and transition into structured vocational training that combined classroom learning with paid workplace experience. These were never neutral decisions. Reason I routinely want to look beyond the dossiers prepared by their social assistants, preferring a hearing. At such hearings across the other end of the long table are youngster often capable, motivated, but poorly matched to traditional university pathways. Europe’s history reminds us that vocational pathways were once used to exclude rather than empower. This was particularly for children of migrant backgrounds. That legacy demands vigilance.
Yet modern dual-track systems are fundamentally different. When properly designed, they do not suppress ambition; they reallocate human capital to where marginal productivity is highest, reducing dropout rates, shortening school-to-work transitions, and lowering long-term fiscal dependency.
The Belgian Dual-Track Model: Aligning Skills with Demand
Belgium’s recent reforms; particularly in Flanders region; are anchored in a simple economic insight: education performs best when treated as a co-investment between the state and the private sector. Under its dual learning framework, students may spend up to 60 percent of their time in structured, paid workplace training, governed by formal contracts between schools, firms, and learners.
Curricula are adjusted dynamically to labour-market signals, reducing mismatch risk and employer onboarding costs. For Nigeria, where firms routinely cite “employability gaps” despite rising graduate numbers, this model demonstrates how to internalise labour-market intelligence into education design.
A typical case illustrates the logic. A 19-year-old student withdraws from university after a difficult first year. By my considered estimates, this kid is of above average intellect but lacking the self-discipline demanded by academic study. Instead of exiting the system, he enters a short-cycle dual programme: part-time classroom instruction combined with embedded workplace training. Within 18 months, he is certified, earning, and employable. The system absorbs early misalignment without destroying human capital.
Economically, this is not remediation; it is risk management.
Nigeria’s Implementation Deficit
The Federal Government’s recent introduction of 15 new “trade subjects” is a commendable policy signal, but without the industrial scaffolding seen in Europe, it risks becoming another unfunded mandate. Currently, the infrastructure deficit in public schools, ranging from power instability to a 190,000-teacher shortfall, makes the teaching of “Digital Craft” or “Solar Installation” nearly impossible at scale.
To move from policy to profit, we must shift our focus to Implementation Science.
A Three-Point Strategic Policy Recommendation
- Fiscal Incentives for Industrial Training: Following the Belgian example, Nigeria should introduce “Education Tax Credits” for blue-chip companies and SMEs that host dual-learning students. This effectively turns the private sector into a secondary campus, solving the equipment deficit without immediate government capex.
- Institutionalizing the “Diaspora BRIDGE”: The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) should partner with the Federal Ministry of Education to create a Knowledge Transfer Tax Incentive. Nigerians in diaspora who contribute 100+ hours of virtual technical training or curriculum design should be eligible for streamlined investment permits or “Pioneer Status” for their Nigerian-based businesses.
- Decentralized ‘Agile’ Curricula: We must move away from a monolithic national curriculum. As regionally-led school boards, States and Local Government Areas should have the autonomy to partner with local industries; tech in the Yaba corridor, agribusiness in the Middle Belt, and renewable energy up North; ensuring the local “Human Capital” matches the local “Industrial Demand.”
The Diaspora as a Systems Multiplier
One strategic asset Nigeria underutilises is its diaspora. In Economic Diplomacy of the Diaspora, I argue that diaspora value lies not primarily in remittances, but in institutional memory, knowledge of how systems actually function.
Nigerian professionals embedded in European apprenticeship ecosystems understand incentive alignment, curriculum-industry feedback loops, and employer participation models. Institutionalising this expertise, through structured virtual faculties, curriculum co-design, and technical oversight, would de-risk reform implementation at relatively low fiscal cost.
In economic terms, the diaspora is not a donor class. It is a systems multiplier.
From Credential Inflation to Productivity Growth
Ultimately, human capital policy is growth policy. Belgium’s pivot underscores a core lesson: national wealth is increasingly tied to workforce adaptability, not the volume of degrees issued. For Nigeria, the imperative is clear. Replace credential inflation with competence formation, and treat education as a production function rather than a prestige ladder.
Not every talent needs a university pathway. But every talent must be productively deployed. That is the difference between demographic promise and economic performance.
About the AUTHOR
Collins NWEKE is a Nigeria-born retired Belgian politician, policy analyst, and consultant with nearly two decades of experience in local governance. A former Green councillor, he served both in opposition and in the ruling coalition, with responsibilities spanning social affairs and inclusion. A first-generation migrant who transitioned from civil society activism into elected office, he writes frequently on democracy, governance, and Africa–Europe relations. He is the author of the forthcoming book ‘Economic Diplomacy of the Diaspora’.
He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the International Association of Research Scholars and Administrators, serving on its Governing Council. A columnist for The Brussels Times, Proshare, and Global Affairs Analyst with a host of media houses, Collins writes from Brussels, Belgium. X: @collinsnweke E: admin@collinsnweke.eu W: www.collinsnweke.eu
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