The Nigeria Petroleum Development Company Ltd. (NPDC) on Saturday said more than 10,000 indigent students from its host communities benefited from its scholarship programmes since  year 2000.
The Manager, Community Relations Department, NPDC, Mr Dahiru Abubakar made this known during the conduct of the year 2019/2020 scholarship examination in Warri, Delta State.
Abubakar noted that about 379 students were invited for Saturday’s examination from all the NPDC host communities.
Represented by the team leader of the Warri examination centre,  Mr Noble Imabibo, Abubakar revealed the  examination was being conducted simultaneously in three centres at  Warri in Delta State, Egbema in Imo State and Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
“We are here to basically conduct NPDC yearly scholarship examination. This exercise is for year 2019/2020 and the process is going on smoothly.
“Basically, this is a tertiary scholarship exams, what we do is to send invitation to our host communities, asking them to nominate four candidates to compete for one slot per community.
“The Warri venue has about 179 candidates, while Egbema and Port Harcourt centres have 100 candidates each.
“In total,  we have 379 candidates sitting for the exam out of which about 160 successful candidates would be awarded the scholarships.
“The NPDC Scholarship Programme started in the year 2000, and since then about 10,000 students have enjoyed and still enjoying the programme,” he said.
According to him,  the effort is part of NPDC corporate social responsibilities to its host communities aimed at promoting human capital development.
Abubakar  further stated that to ensure transparency in the process, NPDC engaged the management of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources (FUPRE) as consultant to conduct the examination.
“The whole idea is to make the examination highly competitive and transparent in line with the TAPE agenda of the NNPC administration,” he added.
Also speaking,  Coordinator of the NPDC Scholarship Examination, (FUPRE) Professor Prekeyi Tawari-Fufeyin, thanked NPDC for the privilege given to the students.
Tawari-Fufeyin urged other corporate organisations to emulate NPDC by coming up with people oriented programmes.
“We are acting as consultants to NPDC to conduct the exams,” she said.
She advised the students to always prepare well for the examination, adding that  performance in the past few years had reduced.
An ND-II student of Ozoro Polytechnic, Delta State, Miss Utohware Oghale, said the scholarship, if awarded to her would be used to  pay school fees and buy books.
A 200 level Physics student of University of Abuja, Mark Mane expressed satisfaction in the process.