UNILORIN graduates 8,320 U-INSPIRE participants
By Mustafa Abubakar
No fewer than 8,320 participants of the U-INSPIRE programme of the University of Ilorin have successfully completed the programme out of about 10, 545 that enrolled during the 2025/2026 academic session.
Speaking last Friday (October 16, 2026) at the programme’s 2nd cohort graduation ceremony and prize presentation held at the University Auditorium, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, charged beneficiaries to make the best use of the skills and opportunities acquired.
Prof. Egbewole also charged the beneficiaries to move beyond academic certificates by acquiring practical skills and transform innovative ideas into sustainable enterprises.
The Vice Chancellor said that U-INSPIRE was created to take students beyond academic certificates, noting that while degrees remain important, 21st-century skills required in the workplace were far more important.
He disclosed that one of the programmes judged among the best in the previous exercise won a N50 million grant, describing this as a validation of what the University was doing through U-INSPIRE.
Prof. Egbewole said the programme currently has 10 partners, expressing the hope that more partners would be onboarded before the third cohort graduation and that relationships with existing partners would become more sustainable and visible.
In his welcome address, the Chairman, U-INSPIRE Implementation Committee, Prof. Rasheed Gbenga Jimoh, said the programme represented an important investment in human capacity development, stressing that university education should equip learners not only with certificates and theoretical knowledge but also with practical competencies, creativity, confidence and the ability to create value.
Prof. Jimoh congratulated the graduands as he urged them to see the graduation not as the end of their journey but as the beginning of a new phase of responsibility, creativity and purposeful engagement. He also commended the facilitators, mentors, partners and members of the Implementation Committee for their contributions to the programme.
The keynote speaker, Mr I. K. Obi, who spoke on “Transforming Innovative Ideas into Sustainable Businesses,” identified knowledge and technical expertise as important foundations of successful business ideas, urging the graduates to continually improve their knowledge because sustainable businesses depend on maintaining a superior knowledge advantage.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the University of Ilorin GgMAX Farms Limited, Prof. Foluke Eunice Sola-Ojo, said that graduands have been trained in different skills and technological innovations.
She, therefore,urged them to make effective use of the knowledge acquired for their own benefit.
At the pitch presentation, McGeorge Consulting Limited emerged first with 76.70 per cent, while Lassod Consulting Limited came second with 73 per cent. Groom to Lead Integrated Services Limited placed third with 71.67 per cent for its Uni-Hub project.
Prof. Idayat Aderinto, who announced the results, said that the projects were assessed on problem-market fit, solution innovation, business viability, team credibility, investment outlook, and presentation impact, with a total of 100 points.
She explained that McGeorge Consulting Limited’s project was designed to create a hub where people could move, stay, conduct research and trade within the same context, while Lassod Consulting Limited proposed a platform to automate project supervision and facilitate interaction between students and supervisors while she noted that the Groom to Lead Integrated Services Limited’s Uni-Hub project was designed as a platform for University of Ilorin students to register and showcase their skills and abilities, with free registration.
