PDTF Screens 600 Applicants For Foreign Scholarships

The Petroleum Technology Development Fund on Friday revealed that a total of 600 applicants in the South-South geo-political zone were screened for its 2024/2025 overseas scholarship scheme.

The firm said the scholarship became pertinent to fill identified skill gaps in the Nigeria oil and gas sector.

The General Manager, Projects of PTDF, Mrs Ifeoma Nwokike, stated this during the screening section in the South-South geo-political zone held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Nwokike said, “The essence of today is to take and train the best of Nigerians. We pride ourselves that the PTDF scholars are known everywhere in the world.’’

“We are sending them to top-class universities in the world, especially in the United Kingdom. A lot of them have achieved so much, even in the institutions where we send them. And that is why we take our time to select the very best.”

Mrs Nwokike listed the focus areas to include Engineering, Geo-Sciences, Environmental Studies and Renewable Energy, saying, “You know that renewable is the emerging field in the oil and gas industry. So we are also interested in that.”

The PTDF General Manager added, “We have about 600 candidates that we are interviewing for this centre in Port Harcourt. It is done in the six geo-political zones of the country simultaneously.”

On the number of students to be selected, she said it depends on the availability of funds, saying, “When we complete this exercise we look at our funding and we look at how much it will take for us to train one candidate then we now determine how many we are going to pick this year.”

Speaking on the criteria for selecting the applicants, The Team Lead of the Overseas Scholarship Interview Programme at the Port Harcourt Centre, Ere Iyalla, said, “First we look at your credentials, how good you have scored in your undergraduate and WAEC levels, your research proposal for your statement of purpose. How it fits into the needs of the industry and then we look at your professional membership because that gives you close to practice to access you.”