KADUNA, NIGERIA– The Petroleum Innovation Advancement Fund (PTDF) has actually reached a historic pivotal moment in Nigeria’s energy education with the induction of 43 PhD scholars into the leader friend of the College of Petroleum and Energy Researches, Kaduna (CPESK).
The event, hung on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, formally introduced academic activities at the specialised postgraduate organization, marking the culmination of a vision developed nearly 17 years earlier.
Executive Secretary of the PTDF, Mr. Ahmed Galadima Aminu, described the launch as a major milestone aimed at domesticating the Fund’s Overseas Scholarship Scheme and bringing first-rate energy research directly to Nigerian soil.
The Split-Site Design: A First for Nigeria
A standout feature of the brand-new PhD programme is its “split-site” application, a pilot model that is the first of its kind in the country.
This framework allows scholars to combine local academic mentorship at CPESK with global exposure through partner institutions in the UK.
Partner UK Institutions Include:
To make sure academic rigour, the PTDF has engaged 43 scholastic consultants, mainly high-achieving PTDF alumni, to provide constant assistance to the scholars throughout their research study journey.
The competition for the leader slots was extreme. Mr Aminu revealed that when the program was advertised in Might 2025, it attracted an incredible 3,702 applications.
Following a multi-stage screening process focused on merit and research study practicality, just 43 prospects (around 1.1% of candidates) emerged successful.
Institutional Shift and NUC Acknowledgment
In a significant regulative upgrade, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, verified that CPESK has actually recently been licensed as a personal university.
This shift supplies a long-term, lawfully identified platform for postgraduate training and research study within Nigeria, considerably lowering the nation’s reliance on overall foreign training.
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Prof. Ribadu commended the PTDF for its continual investment in human capital, noting that the college will help keep worldwide standards through its transnational collaborations while reinforcing local expertise.
The PTDF manager prompted the inductees to see themselves not simply as trainees, however as “ambassadors of a vision.”
He emphasised that their research study must equate into useful services for Nigeria’s energy sector, particularly attending to the developing needs of the oil and gas market in a transitioning global energy landscape.
The effective take-off of CPESK was credited to the high-level support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the management of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, indicating a unified government commitment to developing an internationally competitive energy workforce.