There is a fake circular currently circulating on social media claiming that the Federal Government has postponed Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) stipends nationwide. Trainees are advised to ignore the circular.
A careful review of the document shows that it is fake and poorly generated, likely using ChatGPT AI. Nigeria Startup News can confirm that the circular did not originate from any official government source.
The Federal Ministry of Education (FME) has not issued any announcement regarding the postponement of TVET stipends.
The circular falsely claims to originate from the “Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase II, Abuja,” and contains several spelling and grammatical errors that immediately raise red flags.
It also carries a fake reference number, FME/TVE/ACT/VOL.1/145, dated 9 February 2026.
In addition, the document falsely addresses the Director-General of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Kaduna, further exposing its lack of authenticity.
The content of the fake circular includes numerous errors and claims that payments for July 2025 and August 2025, as well as January 2026, have been postponed, stating that cumulative payments would be made in February 2026. These claims are entirely false.
Nigeria Startup News has deliberately retained the original typographical errors from the fake circular in this report to clearly show how poorly the document was produced.
Meanwhile, all TVET trainees are encouraged to complete their biometric verification, which commenced on Monday across many training centres nationwide.
Trainees who fail to complete the biometric thumbprinting exercise will not be paid the approved monthly stipend of N22,500. Likewise, training centres that fail to comply with the biometric verification process risk being removed from the programme.
