President Bola Tinubu is expected to inaugurate the newly licensed College of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Kaduna (CPESK), later this month, according to Governor Uba Sani.

The governor disclosed this on Monday when he received the executive secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Ahmad Aminu, on a courtesy visit at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House in Kaduna.

He commended Mr Tinubu for granting a provisional licence for CPESK to operate as a private postgraduate university. He described the gesture as a major step toward building local capacity in the petroleum sector.

“This college, if well supported, has the potential to develop manpower that will transform Nigeria’s petroleum industry,” Mr Sani said.

He assured the PTDF of his administration’s support to ensure the successful commissioning and smooth running of the institution.

“PTDF should feel free to approach the Kaduna State government for any support required to ensure the success of this important institution,” the governor added.

Earlier, the PTDF executive secretary said the visit was to brief the governor on the progress made towards the college’s take-off.

Mr Galadima said the college would admit its first batch of PhD students in September 2025, with 3,702 applications already received under the Split-Site PhD Programme.

He said screening and interviews were ongoing, and successful candidates would be admitted into five faculties.

According to him, the college will initially operate with three faculties and six departments, offering 19 academic programmes.

He listed the initial faculties as the Faculty of Computing and Telecommunications Technology, the Faculty of Earth and Applied Sciences, and the Faculty of Energy Law and Management Sciences.

Mr Galadima also said the National Universities Commission (NUC) had licenced CPESK as a private postgraduate institution.

He further disclosed that PTDF had signed strategic partnerships with the University of Strathclyde, Robert Gordon University, and the University of Portsmouth in the UK.

“These partnerships will support the delivery of split-site postgraduate programmes, where students will study primarily at CPESK in Kaduna, with short academic visits to the partner universities in the United Kingdom,” he said.

The executive secretary recalled that the PTDF began the process of establishing CPESK in 2009 to train senior technical, managerial, and executive personnel for Nigeria’s energy sector.

(NAN)