The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) sponsors two levels of scholarships under its Overseas Scholarship Scheme (OSS).These are the MSc and PhD. For the MSc component, the beneficiaries are accommodated in-campus for the one year duration of the Masters programme, and the Fund remits both accommodation and tuition fees directly to the University of Study.

Where we have challenges is the PhD component where a majority of the scholars exercise the option of taking up residences outside the campus. For the 2009/2010 academic session, not less than 55 new PhD scholars have already started their study/research programmes in different Universities in the UK.Before their departure in sept. /oct. 2009, PTDF paid on the average Three Thousand, Five Hundred British Pounds Sterling (3,500) to each of the PhD scholars in advance of their departure as quarterly allowance. This is meant to provide a soft landing on their arrival in UK.The Fund also connects them with letting and property management agencies in the UK to ease the process of securing accommodation. As the PhD programme is of three year duration, existing scholars continue to receive their quarterly allowances. 

PTDF makes it  clear to all its scholars that have elected to rent apartments outside the university campus, that the Fund will remit money for rent direct to the accounts of the Landlord/Agent after an invoice covering the rental period is presented to it for processing. The amount charged as rent is usually within a prescribed limit based on location.  PTDF therefore expects the scholar on deciding on a particular apartment to rent to quickly send an invoice for payment to the Fund. It may interest you to note that out of a total of 81 on-going and current PhD scholars, the Fund has remitted the accommodation fees for 72 scholars totalling 363,952 (Three Hundred and Sixty Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Fifty Two British Pounds) based on invoices received. 

The Fund received some invoices that were considered invalid and therefore could not be processed. They were invalidated for incomplete information such as duration of the rental and absence of account details. The affected scholars were requested to resubmit their rent invoices with proper details. As soon as that is done, theirs will be processed and remitted to the landlords. 

As a policy the Fund does not pay accommodation and tuition fees to its scholars. These are remitted directly to the service providers. We are also aware that some scholars would prefer that the rent charges are paid to them as part of their living and upkeep allowance. It is not unlikely that such scholars would do everything possible to discredit the existing order and create the impression that the Fund is callous and insensitive to “their self inflicted plight”. 

We have had instances in the past where respectable scholars of the Fund prefer to” bunch” themselves together in seedy apartments in order to make some savings from their housing allowance. In other cases, some scholars convert rental fees to mortgage payments for apartments they hope to acquire in UK. 

The scholars attribute the delays in payment of their rents to the coming into effect of a new system in the management of the scheme. This is not true. It is unfortunate that a patriotic and cost saving measure adopted by the new leadership of the Fund could be so trivialised. The Executive Secretary of the Fund Engr.Muttaqha Rabe Darma felt that after 7yrs of operating the OSS, the Fund ought to have acquired sufficient experience and expertise to directly manage the entire segments of the scheme right from the selection of candidates to ensuring that they are properly enrolled and settled in Universities abroad. In this regard, from the 2009/10 session, PTDF management decided to disengage the services of UNIVATION Ltd, the erstwhile consultants to the Fund based in Scotland, thereby saving the N300m paid annually to the consultant. This has made it possible for a lot more Nigerians to benefit from the scholarship schemes of the Fund. We appreciate that any new initiative has its cost. We are also conscious of the likely problems, but we are doing all we can to ensure that life is not made difficult for our scholars abroad. Having taken over the complete management of OSS, we are committed to getting it right and there is no going back. 

Although the journalism profession thrives on the principle of non disclosure of sources, there are situations where revealing the identity of the complainants would assist in resolving  the issues in contention .The Fund will appreciate having the names of the scholars who have raised issues with the Fund so that we can look into their specific problems. 

Kalu otisi

Head, Press and External Relations

PTDF