The Petroleum Trust Development Fund has commenced the screening process for 189 candidates as part of its 2024/2025 overseas postgraduate scholarship programme for Nigerians in the North-West region.
The Team Lead for the North-West Overseas Scholarship Screening, Saratu Abdullahi-Idris, made this known during the screening exercise held at the College of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Kaduna.
She said 1,707 candidates applied for the scholarship from the zone out of which 720 were shortlisted and 189 candidates qualified for the interview being conducted at the North-west centre, on Wednesday.
She listed the scholarship programme to be on certain disciplines which were engineering, computing, Geo sciences, environmental and management sciences.
She added that the overseas scholarship would be held in various universities in Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Malaysia.
According to her, some of the processes for the scholarship interview included the involvement of panellists who were mostly scholars.
One of the Panellists, Dr. Hauwa Victoria- Ibrahim from the Department of Economics, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, commended PTDF dedication to ensure that the right candidates are being selected.
She said, “The process ensures that there are three people in each of the eight panels to allow for multiple interviews to give everyone the benefit of being selected and at the same time save time.
“I am impressed with the qualities of prospective students that applied this year. We have seen demonstrations of excellence in research skills because some of them are already proactive in standing out in their fields.
“The criteria and the steps given to us by the organisation allowed fairness. We don’t have access to the applicants and their parents or guardians except during this interview process. The screening has been so transparent.”
The Interim Head of the Petroleum Technology Trust Fund owned College of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Kaduna, Dr. Munir Sirajo, on Wednesday, said it was time for Nigerians to take up the roles of expatriates in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
He noted that Nigeria would flourish better when Nigerians were fully trained to take charge of the oil and gas sector which contributes 80 per cent to the country’s revenue earnings.
Sirajo spoke to newsmen on the sideline of the screening exercise for the North-West candidates of the 2024 PTDF PostGraduate Overseas Scholarship Programme which was held in the College, Kaduna on Wednesday.
He said the overseas scholarship programme was to ensure that Nigerians were trained on the management of the nation’s oil and gas resources.
He said, “when oil was discovered in the country, those who managed its facilities were mostly expatriates. So, we feel it is high time Nigerians take up those roles, which we believe is a gradual process.
“By the mandate of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund which was set up to develop human and technological capacity for the oil and gas industry, one of our cardinal programmes is the overseas scholarship scheme through which Nigerians are trained from various institutions across the globe.”
One of the candidates, Rukkaya Adam, a graduate of Computer Science from Al-Qalam University, Katsina, said she was inspired to apply for the scholarship because she wanted to join the oil and gas sector to contribute her own quota to the industry by way of helping to secure nation’s oil facilities through the use of technology.
“I want to work in the oil sector as a Cyber Analyst to Check the illegal activities of oil bunkerers who are stealing our common resources,” she said.