N’Delta: Yar’Adua Directs PTDF to Intervene
From Patrick Ugeh in Abuja, 07.24.2008
President Umaru Yar'Adua has directed the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)to intervene in the development of the Niger Delta by establishing a number of educational institutions in different states within the region.
Specifically, the President directed the agency to develop a Federal Polytechnic for Oil and Gas Studies at Ekowe, Bayelsa State; National Technical Institute for Petroleum and Gas Studies at Bonny, Rivers State, and primary and secondary schools at Okerenkoko and Oporoza in Delta State.
Executive Secretary of PTDF, Kabir Mohammed, who made this disclosure yesterday in Abuja while receiving a delegation from Uganda, said the decision stemmed from the Niger Delta stakeholders' meetings on the accelerated socio-economic development of the zone.
He explained that the Fund does not subject its finances to scrutiny by the National Assembly like nearly all the other federal ministries, departments and agencies as it is exempted from appropriation because 'the signature bonus from oil blocks every year comes to us. So we do what we want without going to the assembly.'
The PTDF chief also disclosed that the agency spends 24,500 pounds sterling per year on each of the 731 MSc students it has sponsored abroad under the Overseas Scholarship Scheme for those going for oil and gas studies from 2002 to 2007.
Mohammed said another 115 PhD scholars benefited from the scheme between 2003 and now which he said is part of PTDF's mandate to refocus completely and focus on capacity building.
According to him, the Fund would attain, and might even surpass, the government's plan to attain 70 per cent in the Nigerian content or local content scheme by 2010, saying the current level is 45 per cent.
