Tanya Davidson
Abuja — The Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, is exploring a partnership with Kaduna State University to strengthen engineering education and specialised technical skills, as the university seeks support for its newly established Faculty of Engineering.
The proposed collaboration could also give the university access to specialised laboratories, learning infrastructure and virtual learning capabilities at PTDF’s General Shehu Musa Yar’adua University of Geological Sciences and Engineering Technology, UGSET.
The Executive Secretary of PTDF, Professor Shu’aibu Shehu Aliyu, disclosed this when he received a delegation from Kaduna State University led by its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Abdullahi Ibrahim Musa, at the PTDF Towers, Abuja.
Musa said the university was seeking support to strengthen the infrastructure and human resources of its new Faculty of Engineering.
He also noted that the university already had a pool of PTDF beneficiaries among its lecturers, particularly in specialised disciplines including engineering and geophysics.
Responding, Aliyu expressed the Fund’s willingness to explore mutually beneficial areas of partnership with the university, particularly those capable of strengthening human capacity and specialised skills.
He highlighted the facilities at UGSET, including its laboratories, learning infrastructure and virtual learning capabilities, as potential platforms for supporting knowledge and skills development.
Aliyu said expanding human-capital development was critical to national development, stressing that investment in knowledge should remain central to Nigeria’s development strategy.
“Knowledge Economy is the best economy,” he said.
The engagement signals a potential expansion of PTDF’s role beyond scholarship funding, with its specialised institutional infrastructure potentially serving as a platform for collaboration with Nigerian universities to strengthen engineering education and technical capacity.
