President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday said Nigeria has been plagued by the downturn in the oil industry.

He said this while inaugurating the governing boards of three parastatals of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources-the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation; the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board and the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Buhari said the misfortunes in the oil industry has hit some countries harder than Nigeria.

“Nigeria has been hit by the misfortunes of the oil industry but several countries have been hit much harder,” he said.

The President expressed hope that those appointed will fulfill the country’s expectations and chart a way out of the problem.

“Since the arrival of this administration, there has been an improvement in transparency through the publishing of monthly operational and financial reports of the corporation.

“These, added to the major restructuring of the corporation and the liberalisation of the downstream sector, are pointers to the determination and focus of the new NNPC under this administration.

“I must mention that the task before you is enormous, but I am confident that with your wealth of experience and knowledge of members of these boards, the desired growth, this government’s aspirations and indeed the aspirations of Nigerians, will be achieved within a reasonable time frame,” he added.