Key points
- The Petroleum Technology Development Fund has commenced training for 35 researchers in computational catalysis to drive Nigeria’s industrial growth.
- The workshop was organized by the fund in collaboration with Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
- The training aims to address Nigeria’s industrial challenges with homegrown solutions and reduce over-reliance on foreign expertise.
- Nigeria remains dependent on foreign technical expertise for catalyst design, process modeling, and computational optimization.
- Participants were drawn from across Nigeria and beyond, including one researcher from the Republic of Chad.
Main Story
The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) has commenced training for 35 researchers in computational catalysis as part of efforts to accelerate industrial growth in Nigeria.
The workshop was organised by PTDF in collaboration with Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, under the theme “Why It Matters: Opportunities for Research, Industry, and National Development in Nigeria.”
PTDF said the initiative is aimed at addressing Nigeria’s industrial challenges through homegrown solutions and reducing dependence on foreign expertise.
Speaking at the opening ceremony at ABU’s main campus, the Executive Secretary of PTDF, Prof. Shu’aibu Shehu-Aliyu, said the programme is designed to equip researchers with the skills needed to translate scientific knowledge into practical industrial solutions.
He was represented by the General Manager, Education and Training, Hajiya Rabi Waziri.
He said computational catalysis has become an essential tool for advancing research in the petroleum, petrochemical and energy sectors, noting that it improves efficiency and drives innovation.
Shehu-Aliyu added that PTDF remains committed to building indigenous human capacity and supporting research and technological development in Nigeria’s oil, gas and energy industries.
He also said the fund has established a PTDF Professorial Chair Programme at ABU Zaria and five other universities to strengthen academic research and industry collaboration.
ABU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adamu Ahmed, represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Bello Sabo, said the university remains committed to developing indigenous knowledge and expertise.
He described the workshop as a deliberate investment in Nigeria’s capacity to design and optimise catalytic systems for the petroleum and petrochemical sectors, as well as emerging clean energy technologies.
Earlier, PTDF Chair Professor at ABU, Prof. Abdulazeez Yusuf-Atta, said the 35 participants were selected from a competitive pool based on their research achievements and commitment to scientific innovation.
The Issues
- Overcoming Nigeria’s persistent structural dependence on foreign technical expertise for catalyst design and process modeling.
- Scaling up local computing research to drastically minimize expensive, time-consuming laboratory experiments for local industries.
- Building a sustainable critical mass of domestic experts capable of cascading specialized advanced knowledge across nationwide institutions.
What’s Being Said
- Highlighting the critical link between localized technical capacity and national economic stability, Prof. Shu’aibu Shehu-Aliyu stated: “For a country like Nigeria, where energy resources are central to economic growth and sustainability, building capacity in advanced and specialised fields is critical,”
- Defining the foundational vision of the university in cultivating autonomous local intellectual property, Prof. Adamu Ahmed said: “The institution is more than a place of learning, it is a national institution built on the conviction that indigenous knowledge and homegrown expertise are the foundation of a truly sovereign nation.”
- Detailing how the workshop directly confronts the domestic gap in midstream engineering design capabilities, Ahmed noted: “It is a deliberate investment in Nigeria’s capacity to understand, design, and optimise the catalytic systems that underpin our petroleum industry, petrochemical sector, and emerging clean energy ambitions, using computational tools developed and applied in Nigeria by Nigerian scientists.”
- Contextualizing the existing technological gap as an open runway for targeted developmental interventions, the Vice-Chancellor added: “According to him, Nigeria is the largest oil-producing nation on the continent. Yet, we remain dependent on foreign technical expertise for catalyst design, process modelling, and computational optimisation. This is not a statement of failure — it is an opportunity. It is precisely this opportunity that the PTDF Chair in Chemical Engineering was established to address.”
- Explaining the immense commercial value that precise chemical surface manipulations can unlock for the industrial manufacturing sector, Prof. Abdulazeez Yusuf-Atta observed: “A molecule, under the right conditions on the right catalyst surface, can be transformed into propylene — a building block for plastics, fibres, and industrial chemicals worth billions of dollars,”
What’s Next
- The 35 selected participants will complete their intensive computational training sessions at ABU’s main campus in Zaria.
- Trained researchers will return to their respective home institutions across Nigeria and Chad to cascade the acquired knowledge as trainers.
- PTDF will monitor its professorial chair programs across six selected universities to evaluate their progress in solving key energy industry challenges.
Bottom Line
To eliminate over-reliance on foreign technical expertise in the continent’s largest oil-producing economy, the PTDF has partnered with ABU Zaria to train 35 competitive researchers in computational catalysis, aiming to create a self-sustaining pool of experts who can simulate solutions to save time, cost, and energy across the petroleum and clean energy sectors.
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