Over 5000 candidates applied for the 2023-2024 Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Overseas Postgraduate Scholarship Program, Bolanle Kehinde-Abiola, Head, PTDF scholarship scheme has disclosed.

kehinde-Abiola, who spoke on Monday at the opening ceremony of the selection interview exercise for shortlisted candidates for the 2022/24 overseas postgraduate scholarship MSc and Ph.D. award, noted that the programme would last for one week, and successful candidates would be awarded scholarships for Universities in the United Kingdom, UK, Germany, France, China and Malaysia.

“We are kick-starting the process for the award of scholarships for the 2023 overseas scheme. We have over five thousand candidates we have shortlisted to partake in the exercise which is going on nationwide in the six geo-political zones of the country.

“The first criterion is that you must be a Nigerian and for the masters’ scholarship, you must be a student of any of the oil and gas fields like engineering, geology, computing, environmental sciences and management. You must have a minimum of 2.1 in any of these fields for you to qualify.

“The application windows open at the end of the year and then candidates are called to apply PTDF is an agency of government that is charged for the capacity building of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

“The essence of the program is for Nigerians to take over the operations of the oil and gas industry and to give them the necessary skills that are required to operate in the Nigeria oil and gas industry.

“We have the scholarship scheme running in the United Kingdom, we also have what is called strategic partnerships in France, Germany, Malaysia and China. The interview lasts for one week.

“The number of candidates the agency takes depends on the budget they have for the year. In previous years, the agency takes about three MSA candidates for the United Kingdom collaboration.

“The agency has two types of collaborations which are The United Kingdom collaboration and The strategic partnership collaboration, which is the GFCM which is Germany, France, China and Malaysia where we also take three MSc candidates.

“Then for the PhD, we take two candidates for The United Kingdom collaboration and two for the GFCM from over the state (per state).

“We started virtual interviews post-COVID because of the challenge of people moving from one place to another during the COVID era. Since then, it had come to stay and even this year, we will embark on virtual interviews for candidates who will not be physically able to attend the interview, and other candidates will be considered under alternative circumstances.

“For instance, if a candidate is sick, or in abroad and is unable to attend the interview in Nigeria it is a criterion for the virtual interview,” she said.

According to her, the first criteria to qualify for the scholarship is that applicant must be a Nigerian and for the masters scholarship, one must be a student of any of the oil and gas fields like engineering, geology, computing, environmental sciences and management, and had made a minimal of 2.1 in any of these fields.

She said that the number of candidates the agency takes depends on the budget they have for the year, stressing that in previous years, about three MSc candidates were taken for the United Kingdom collaboration.

“This year we brought a new approach to it because as earlier said, we always strive for excellence in this program and to make sure the program has integrity. We engaged external experts to review the shortlisting after the staff had already has already checked and submitted it.

“We submitted that submission to a group of experts to review that shortlisting to ensure that whoever is shortlisted is qualified to attend the interview and that level was done which is another level-the third level.

“Then the final level of the selection process is that after the interview, the best candidates will emerge and the award will be given to such candidates” she stated. (Daily Independent)

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