Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centres across several states have commenced the use of biometric systems to record trainee attendance, a move that directly links attendance verification to the payment of monthly stipends.
Under the new arrangement, only trainees whose attendance is captured through biometric verification will be eligible to receive their stipends. Training centres have begun notifying participants of the development, with some centres confirming that fingerprint capturing will officially commence from Monday, February 9, 2026, as early as 8:00 a.m.
According to one of the notifications issued by a centre, trainees were informed that the biometric attendance method, which had been previously communicated, would now be fully enforced. The centre also warned that attendance records would henceforth determine eligibility for monthly stipend payments.
In some centres, biometric capturing is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, January 10, 2026, depending on the specific skill area or course of study. Trainees who fail to undergo biometric registration will be regarded as unregistered for the TVET programme.
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The new policy has drawn mixed reactions from trainees. While some have expressed concern over unresolved backlog of stipend payments, others cited difficulties in travelling long distances to their assigned centres. In response to complaints related to accessibility, the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) has reportedly reopened its portal for 2026 TVET centre registration to allow trainees adjust their centre choices.
The biometric attendance requirement follows an earlier directive issued by the Federal Ministry of Education to accredited training centres on January 8, 2026. The directive mandated the procurement and compulsory use of biometric attendance devices in all TVET centres participating in the programme.
Training centres have also been provided with approved software applications to be installed on the biometric devices to ensure uniformity and proper monitoring. All centres are required to record daily trainee attendance using the system.
According to the ministry, any centre that fails to comply with the directive risks being deregistered from the programme, with affected trainees reposted to other centres. Additionally, trainees who are not captured through the biometric system will not be eligible to receive the ₦22,500 monthly stipend.
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