From Ahmed Mohammed, Bauchi
The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has commenced the 2026/2027 Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS) selection interviews, with 424 shortlisted candidates participating at the Northeast centre, the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University.ATBU, Bauchi.
Out of the 424 students to be screened in the region, the Fund has shortlisted 266 for masters degree and 158 for PhD.
The exercise, which runs from April 7 to 17, is being conducted simultaneously across Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.
At the Bauchi centre, the interview process began on Tuesday, with candidates vying for limited slots in the highly sought-after MSc and PhD scholarship programmes.
Speaking during the exercise, the Team Lead for the 2026 OSS interviews, Deputy Manager Services, College of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Sirajo Abdullahi Fari, described the scheme as a strategic initiative aimed at grooming professionals for Nigeria’s energy industry.
Fari explained that the process involved three stages; system verification, screening of documents by the personnel of the Fund and vetting by a team of consultants.
According to him, the Fund’s mandate is to train for human capital development to fill the manpower shortage in the oil sector.
He said that the PTDF had been sponsoring students abroad for the past 20 years and necessary development contributions had been recorded.
Fari said the PTDF scholarship programme focuses on training Nigerians in oil and gas-related fields at partner institutions across the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia, and other parts of Europe.
“The essence of this scheme is to bridge the technical gap between expatriates and indigenous professionals in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. We want Nigerians to acquire the competence required to take up critical roles in the industry,” he said.
He explained that candidates were assessed based on academic qualifications, relevance of their research proposals to national priorities, and their ability to clearly communicate their ideas.
“The panelists are experts in their fields. They examine the candidates’ proposals, especially for PhD applicants, to determine their relevance to current realities in the oil and gas sector,” he said.
“We have been receiving testimonies that our former cohorts are now part of the people manning the newly built Dangote Refinery, Shell and other places. In fact, many others are now professors who are the ones being deployed as panelists.”
On transparency, Fari highlighted the role of PTDF’s ICT systems in ensuring a credible selection process, and explained that application portals were time-stamped and credentials rigorously verified.
He explained that the Fund had always insisted on merit and ensure that qualified candidates emerged regardless of their status, tribe or connection.
One of the panelists, Professor Abubakar Isa Bello of Bayero University, Kano, said the exercise was centred on merit-based without interference from PTDF. “We have been given the guidelines and follow through, we therefore at the end of the day make recommendations based on our assessment and the Fund makes the final decision.”