Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has shortlisted at least 606 candidates from North-East to study their Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Sciences (MSc) abroad.
Speaking to journalists during the screening and physical verification of candidates in Bauchi centre held in ATBU yesterday, the head of overseas scholarships of the PTDF, Abdullahi Fari, said that the successful candidates will study oil and gas or renewable energy related programmes.
He said the mandate of PTDF is to develop capacity, competency, skills in the oil and gas industry, saying that they also give equal opportunity to all Nigerians to apply for PTDF programmes to study abroad.
Explaining the criteria used in selecting the candidates, he said they looked at their O’level certificate and first degree, adding that they also looked at the second degree of candidates going for PhD.
He said, “The applicants are of two categories, there are those for PhD and those for MSc. For those for PhD, what we are after is the quality and relevancy of the proposal to the oil and gas industry.
“We will look at the proposal very well and look at the novelty in the proposal and we will also look at how the proposal is going to address one of the challenges in the Nigeria oil and gas industry.
“For the MSc category, we will look at the statement of purpose, the confidence the prospective scholar has, then we will see the intended proposal he has in mind.”
“Most 90 to 95 percent of PTDF candidates that normally study abroad are outstanding. Our candidates are performing excellently because of the selection process which is transparent and based on merit,” he said.
“Here in Bauchi, we have 606 shortlisted candidates and today, we are going to interview 204 which consist of 102 PhD and 102 MSc,” Fari said.
On his part, one of the panelists, Dr Usman Hassan, Head of Department, Petroleum Engineering, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, said if the scholars become successful at the end of the programme, they are going to add value and make contributions to the national oil and gas industry.
One of the candidates, Ijantiku John, said he applied for the PTDF to pursue his Masters Degree in Environmental Science in Germany and lauded the screening process.
“The questions they asked are based on your field that you aspire to study and everything is very transparent and no manipulations whatsoever,” he said.
Another candidate, Husaini Mohammed, who said that he applied for the PTDF scholarship online for his PhD in Chemical Engineering in Germany, expressed happiness for being shortlisted.
