About five thousand Nigerians are expected to go abroad for study on the scholarship of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).
PTDF Head of Overseas Scholarship Scheme, Bolanle Kehinde Agboola, who stated this during the screening of applicants yesterday in Abuja, said over 20 ,000 Nigerians applied.
“We have over 3,000 people that have been shortlisted for Masters and for PhD we have 2,000 people. What is happening here today is the final stage of the selection process for the award of 2024 overseas scholarship to qualify Nigerians.
This exercise is not just holding in Abuja. We have centres in the six geopolitical zones of the country. We have a centre for the South -South in the University of Port Harcourt.
“For the Southwest, we have the University of Ibadan. And for Southeast, we have the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus. And for Northwest, we have our College of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Kaduna. And also for the Northeast, we have ATBU in Bauchi, where the exercise is going. So totally this year, we received a total of over 20 ,000 applications. And out of which, over 5 ,000 were shortlisted to participate in this exercise. Our target is to select the best, you know, for the oversea scholarship, like I said.
“The purpose of this is for the indigenisation of Nigerian oil and gas industry. So, the target is to give the necessary skills to provide the opportunity for Nigerians to acquire the knowledge, the skills and the competencies that are needed for the oil and gas industry.”
She assured Nigerians that every state of the nation would get equal number based on our budget for the year.
“So I cannot tell you it is going to be two per state or one per state for now.
“So it is based on the budget that we have for the year. But the whole five thousand, it’s not possible.
“I cannot tell you how much budget we have for the year. I am not in the position to tell you.”
Asked why the beneficiaries we’re not enrolled in schools within the country, she said: “The reason is because we discovered that the oil and gas industry is a high-tech industry with high level of equipment and some of these equipment are not readily available in Nigeria.
“The reason we train people are abroad is to be able to have a hands-on on all these equipment and the technology that are needed for the industry.
“Apart from the oversea scholarship we all so have the in country scholarship whereby Nigerians are also trained Nigerians in some federal universities in Nigeria that PTDF has already intervene and upgraded their facilities.”
According to her, government was not worried if the beneficiaries would abscond after their studies because machineries had been put in place in ensure that they return to the country.
“What we do this that they signed bond with us before they go. If for any reason they have to stay back. The beautiful thing is that the countries we are sending them to do not allow them to stay back.
“Once you have sponsorship from a government agency if you are going to have a visa that will make you to stay back, they will ask you to go back to your sponsor to go you a letter known as letter of no objection. I can tell you for free that a lot of them do come back.”
In addition, she said the Nigerian government had established with over 18 universities across the globe.
She said: “We have partnership with four countries. We have partnership with the United Kingdom. In the UK we have about 18 universities; Imperial College, University College, Kings College University of Nottingham, University of Birmingham, Crawford University, University of Glasgow, Robert Gordon University.
“We have partnership with France. In Germany we have partnership German Academic Exchange Services. In Germany every public university has been certified for us to partner with.
“In Malaysia we have University of Technology Petronas, it is owned by the oil and gas company in Malaysia and University of Malaya.”
A beneficiary fro Niger State, Amira Abbas Bello, who spoke on the process of application said the exercise was seamless.
She said: “Quite frankly, the process has been smooth right from the gate. Everything has been done in a very orderly manner.
“The staff here have been really nice and polite and cautious. And then the interview process too, it was fair.
“We had people, some from the same field, from the petroleum and gas fields, in terms of engineering and management.
“It was just a very nice experience. And the questions asked were really good questions that would determine whether or not that you re capable or not.”
Bello added: “Quite frankly, I have been hearing about PTDF for a very long time. What I did not know was that it was actually true, that people actually get these awards or being called for interviews.”