The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has outlined how candidates are selected for its overseas scholarship interviews from thousands of applications.
Speaking to journalists on Monday at the PTDF Towers in Abuja, Bolanle Kehinde Agboola, Head of the PTDF Overseas Scholarship Scheme, disclosed that over 29,000 individuals applied for the 2025/26 Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS). Out of these, more than 5,000 candidates were shortlisted and invited for selection interviews, which began nationwide on Monday.
The interviews, covering both MSc and PhD awards, are being conducted simultaneously across six centres: Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Enugu, Bauchi, and Kaduna, representing the country’s six geo-political zones.
Agboola noted that interview panels consist of experts from academia and the oil and gas industry, all of whom have been briefed on the selection guidelines.
Highlighting PTDF’s reputation for integrity and fairness in the scholarship process, which has been running for about 25 years, Agboola explained that the shortlisting involves several rigorous electronic screening stages. These systems allocate points based on details provided in each candidate’s application.
“We have a robust, multi-stage shortlisting process conducted electronically to assign points according to the information submitted by applicants,” she said.
She further explained that after the initial electronic assessment, the Fund verifies the details in each application against the documents and certificates uploaded by the candidates.
On the number of eventual scholarship recipients, Agboola said the final decision would be determined by PTDF management and has not yet been concluded.
“But the number to be awarded the scholarship will be decided by the management, and it hasn’t been decided,” she stated.
