Executive Secretary, Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Mr Femi Ajayi has assured Nigerians on the commitment of the agency towards the prompt payment of all financial obligations to its scholars abroad including the quarterly remittances of allowances to scholars.
Mr. Ajayi said that in spite of the funding constraints faced by the agency, the number one priority will be to keep all the scholars in school even if it means suspending all the infrastructure upgrade programmes until the funding situation significantly improved.
“Since we came in, we have not done any new project, but we are meeting all our obligations to scholars. The other ones are also priorities but they are supposed to enhance the other ones because if we decide to build a geo-physics laboratory at the University of Abuja, that is still a capacity building but then, the first priority is what we are paying to ensure that the scholars are in school, to see to the education and training of our people”.
He said, the Fund will continue to remit all the accommodation, utility and living expenses to scholars on quarterly basis throughout the period of their scholarship. This is done before the first day of the first month of every quarter to forestall delays in the payment process.
The Fund he said has developed a spreadsheet containing the names and relevant information of every scholar and this serves as a guide to know when payments are due for each scholar. “For convenience purpose, accommodation, utility and living expense allowances are usually remitted to scholars on quarterly basis throughout the stipulated period of their scholarship”.
“There are so many allowances that are involved so sometimes if a scholar wants to attend one technology fair in the USA and he is telling us about it one week to the program, it may be because he did not get to know about it in good time or rather because his attention might have been taken by some other things and we need time”.
On the likely impact of the petroleum industry bill (PIB), on the Fund when passed into law, the PTDF boss said his agency has been anxiously awaiting the passage of the bill which will give legal backing to its planned domestication of training programme in line with Nigeria’s local content policy which is encapsulated in the transformation agenda
