The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has provided scholarships to 8,196 Nigerians over the past 20 years, according to Mrs. Bolanle Kehinde Agboola, Head of Overseas Scholarship at PTDF. Agboola revealed this during a sensitization and capacity building program at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
The initiative, jointly organized by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Student Engagement and the PTDF, aims to inform students about PTDF’s role in developing capacities for the oil and gas industry. Agboola outlined PTDF's three-pronged approach: institutional capacity building, human capital development through scholarships, and technology transfer.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Students Engagement, Sunday Asefon, commended PTDF for its sustained investment in education and human capital development. He encouraged students to seize PTDF opportunities and urged the agency to continue placing students at the center of national development.
Asefon emphasized the need for a multi-disciplinary approach in the oil and gas sector, involving engineers, digital innovators, environmental scientists, legal experts, and community mobilizers.
Agboola expressed concern about beneficiaries not returning to Nigeria due to limited job opportunities and urged oil companies to collaborate to retain talent. She also advised researchers to commercialize their work to address industry challenges.
