PTDF's Overseas Scholarship Scheme: Fully Funded Postgraduate Study for Nigerians

Most of the scholarships worth knowing about are run by a foreign government or a foreign university. This one isn't. The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) is an agency of the Nigerian government, and its Overseas Scholarship Scheme sends Nigerian graduates abroad for master's and PhD study in fields the country's oil and gas sector actually needs.

Who it's for. Nigerian citizens only — this isn't open to other nationalities the way most of the scholarships we cover are. PTDF's own guidelines prioritise petroleum engineering, geosciences, chemical engineering and environmental science, though the scheme has historically stretched to management disciplines connected to the sector.

What it covers. Tuition, a living stipend, and travel, for study at PTDF's partner universities in the UK, Germany, France and Malaysia — confirmed directly against PTDF's own scholarship portal.

On the deadline. PTDF doesn't currently have an open window listed for the Overseas Scheme, and we'd rather tell you that plainly than guess. PTDF also runs a separate In-Country Scheme with its own, different application dates, so if you're checking PTDF's site yourself, make sure you're reading the Overseas Scheme page and not the In-Country one — they're easy to mix up. Check back here, or on PTDF's own portal, for when the next Overseas window opens.

The class-of-degree detail worth double-checking yourself. PTDF's overseas scheme has typically required at least a Second Class Upper for master's applicants — confirm the exact current cutoff on PTDF's own guidelines page before you invest time in the rest of the application, since requirements can shift between cycles.