A total of 217 Nigerians have been inducted into
the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) 2013/2014 and 2014/2015
Masters of Science (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) scholarships
under its Overseas Scholarship Scheme.
Speaking
at a ceremony held on Monday in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the
fund, Femi Ajayi, said the the inductees emerged from a total of 500
candidates after an examination.
“Today, we are
inducting 217 scholars, including 170 fresh MSc scholars, four deferred
as well as 43 fresh PhD scholars,” was quoted as saying in a Premium Times report.
Ajayi
revealed that the PTDF has since the year 2000 sponsored 2,412 MSc
students in Petroleum Engineering, Gas Engineering, Geoscience, Offshore
Engineering, Geology and other oil and gas-related courses.
He added that 488 PhD scholars have been trained in relevant fields overseas.
“The
Fund has also trained 74 university lecturers under its University
Lecturers Skills Enhancement Training Program, a train-the-trainer
programme, in Newcastle, United Kingdom and Grenoble in France," he
said.
According to Ajayi, "the Overseas
Scholarship Scheme is to encourage and stimulate continuous learning and
technology development in the petroleum industry.
“It also aims to expose Nigerians to the latest technological advancement in the global petroleum industry."
Ajayi
noted that the awardees are sent abroad for training because of the
non-availability of some core courses in Nigerian universities, adding
that on completion of their studies, the beneficiaries would be expected
to fill the skill gap in the petroleum industry.
This set of inducted awardees bring to 2,974, the total number of recipients of the 14-years-old scholarship programme.
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