Olajumoke Ajayi has taken over the Presidency of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).
The Managing Director of Ingentia Energies was inaugurated as President at the last annual conference of the body; the largest grouping of oil industry technical professionals in Africa.
She took over from Johnbosco Uche, who is Renaissance Africa’s Exploration & Geosolutions Manager.
Ajayi had, until the evening of the inauguration on November 13, 2025, served as President-Elect of the association for one year (after her election in November 2024), during which she-as a rule-superintended the “continuing education” programme of the society, including the monthly technical sessions all around the country and the yearly conference.
Ajayi is the first female CEO of an E&P company to take charge as head of the prestigious body. She is the third female President in NAPE’s 50 year history, but Doja Ojelabi (2013/2014.)and Patricia Ochogbu (2020/2021) were ranking managers in Chevron and ExxonMobil respectively when they took the reins as presidents of the association.
When she was elected NAPE’s Vice President in 2014, Ajayi was the first female to hold the position in 40 years.
Just a month and half before her swearing in as NAPE President, Ajayi led Ingentia Energies to receive the Petroleum Mining Licence (PML) certificate for the Egbolom field, awarded to the company as a prospecting licence in 2022. Under her watch, Ingentia was the first of 45 companies (in the class of the 2020- 2022 Nigerian Bid Rond awardees) to have its PPL converted to PML.
Ajayi moved to Ingentia Energies after helming Asharami Energy, the upstream arm of Sahara Group, an energy conglomerate which claims to have operations in over 38 countries.
NAPE’s new President holds a Bachelor’s and a Master of Science degree in Applied Geophysics, and started her career with Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (ExxonMobil). Before joining Sahara Group, Olajumoke also worked in Degeconek Consulting, Peak Petroleum Limited, and Centrica Resources Nig. Ltd (British Gas).
Having gathered technical experience in two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) Seismic acquisition & processing, land and onshore seismic data interpretation, drilling, and production, Ajayi certainly has a firm grasp of the entire industry operations. She has shown tremendous capacity for leadership, spearheading the exploration team that successfully drilled and delivered Asharami Energy’s first three wells.
She is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG).
