PTDF pledges collaboration with oil, gas coys to absorb scholarship students

Credit: NAN

The PTDF says it will collaborate with the Oil and Gas Industries in Nigeria to ensure that students trained through its scholarships scheme are employed into key positions in the industries.

Head, Overseas Scholarship Scheme, Petroleum Technology  Development Fund (PTDF), Bolanle Agboola, disclosed this on Thursday in her keynote address at a one-day sensitisation/capacity building programme for students of the University of Uyo.

The keynote address is tagged “PTDF: A Tool for Young People’s Development in the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry”.

Agboola noted that since the establishment of the PTDF in 2001, many Nigerians have enjoyed both in-country and overseas scholarships.

She explained that the agency’s intervention was not only at tertiary level of education but have extended to secondary schools.

She revealed that the scholarship was targeted at solving technical problems and technology transfer in the oil industry.

She added that more than 8, 000 Nigerians have benefitted in the last 20 years from the PTDF scholarships as part of its Human Capital Development plan.

“I am here this afternoon to sensitise the students of this institution on the activities of the PTDF. The PTDF help in capacity institutional building and we also have human capital development.

“Under human capital development we have programmes that PTDF have developed, one of them is PTDF scholarships and most of the students are interested in this.

“The purpose of this scholarship is to provide funds for students to develop themselves in oil and gas related areas to ensure that they have knowledge transfer in different institutions across the world.

“We have two types of scholarship, overseas scholarships scheme and the in-country scholarships scheme.

“In the overseas scholarships scheme, funds are provided for students to travel abroad to high ranking universities in the world and the in-country is the one that is domiciled in Nigeria.

“To be a beneficiary the student must be a Nigerian and also studied oil and gas related courses,” she said.

Agboola, however, decried the situation where some beneficiaries refuse to return to Nigeria after their training due to lack of job opportunities, as the oil companies could not retain their services.

Earlier in his remarks, the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Students Engagement, Mr Asefon Sunday, said the youths were ready to learn, lead and contribute meaningfully to the oil and gas industry.

Sunday commended the PTDF for their continued investment in education, training, and human capital development, particularly in a sector that was so critical to the national progress; oil and gas.

Similarly, the President, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Oladoja Olushola, urged the students to take the opportunity presented by the PTDF with seriousness, curiosity, and a spirit of innovation.