The Petroleum Trust Development Fund,(PTDF), has commenced the screening of 600 candidates for its 2024/2025 overseas postgraduate scholarship programme for Nigerians in the South-South region.

The General Manager, Projects, Mrs Ifeoma Nwokike, disclosed this to journalists in Port Harcourt on Monday.

Nwokike said that the interview was ongoing simultaneously across the six geopolitical zones.

”Port Harcourt is the centre for the 600 candidates that were selected from the South-South zone.

“The annual overseas postgraduate scholarship is a well thought-out programme intended to bridge the skill gap in the oil and gas industry.

“The scheme has been used over the years to train the best of Nigerians. PTDF scholars are known everywhere in the world,” she said.

Nwokike said that for candidates from the South-South region, the 2024/2025 edition would give priority attention to engineering, geosciences, environmental sciences among others.

She further said that availability of fund would be key in determining the number of candidates for the scholarship award

“Our mandate is capacity building in the oil and gas industry, we have been mandated to train Nigerians in the different skills and vocations in the oil and gas industry.

“We use these scheme to train Nigerians in top universities abroad so that they can come back and contribute to the oil and gas industry in the identified skills gap,” she said.

In his remarks, Mr Ere Iyalla, the Team Lead, Overseas Scholarship Interview Programme, Port Harcourt Centre, said the interview was for both Masters Degree and Ph.D. candidates.

Iyalla listed some of the criteria for the scholarships to include good O’Level result, research proposal, membership of professional body, statement of purpose and its relevance to industrial needs.

Also speaking, one of the candidates, Mr Nwaobasi Caleb, said he applied for a Maters Degree programme in Civil Engineering at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Caleb expressed his belief in the transparency of the selection process, saying,”I believe the process is fair and transparent”

He pledged his resolve to take the programme seriously if given the opportunity.(NAN)