Politics
Sanwo-Olu rewards LASU’s best graduating students with N20m
LAGOS State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has announced a cash reward of N20 million each for the Lagos State University (LASU) best graduating students for the 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 academic sessions.
The governor made the announcement at LASU’s Main Campus, Ojo, during the university’s combined 29th and 30th Convocation Ceremonies, where thousands of students from the two academic sessions were formally awarded their degrees.
The beneficiaries are Ayilara Lawal Olawale, the overall best graduating student for the 2024/2025 session, and Adebanjo Samuel Oluolamide, who emerged the overall best graduating student for 2025/2026.
Olawale, a graduate of Project Management, finished with an outstanding CGPA of 4.96, earning First Class Honours. Adebanjo, who studied Aerospace Engineering, recorded an even higher CGPA of 4.97, also graduating with First Class Honours.
The governor’s announcement came a day after Oluolamide received a N10 million cash prize from the Sunbeth Excellence Partnership Programme (SEPP) as he was presented with a dummy cheque for the N10 million prize during a pre-convocation event at LASU’s Olatunji Bello Auditorium, Epe Campus, on Monday, August 17.
The SEPP connects top-performing students with real industry opportunities in agriculture, logistics, and energy, Nigeria’s most critical growth sectors.
In continuation of his annual gesture to the university’s best students, this year’s award was 100 per cent higher than the cash gifts offered by the governor in 2024 and 2025.
The latest awards came as LASU celebrated what its Vice-Chancellor, Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, described as a significant milestone for the institution, with the university graduating a combined 20,604 students across the two academic sessions.
According to figures presented by the university, 7,621 first-degree students graduated in the 2024/2025 session, including 262 First Class graduates. For the 2025/2026 session, 8,653 first-degree students graduated, with 232 obtaining First Class honours.
Across the two sessions, the university also produced 3,383 postgraduate graduates and 991 diploma graduates.
The combined convocation was necessitated by LASU’s decision to hold the ceremonies for the two academic sessions together. The university had announced that the convocation programme would run from August 12 to August 23, 2026, with the conferment of first degrees, postgraduate diplomas and master’s degrees scheduled for August 18, followed by doctoral and honorary doctorate degrees on August 19.
The convocation also featured the conferment of honorary doctorate degrees on prominent Nigerians, including businessman Aliko Dangote, corporate leader Bola Adesola and businessman Akin Kekere-Ekun, according to the university’s convocation report.
LASU is one of Nigeria’s major state-owned universities established in 1983 with its main campus is located in Ojo, Lagos, by an enabling law of the Lagos State Government. It describes its mission as advancing learning and academic excellence while contributing to teaching, research and service to humanity
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.
