The Federal University Lokoja will graduate 5,638 students, including 182 PhD graduates, at its 10th convocation ceremony scheduled for Saturday.

The vice-chancellor, Gbenga Ibileye, disclosed this on Monday at a news conference in Lokoja ahead of the university’s 10th convocation.

Mr Ibileye also used the occasion to present his account of stewardship since assuming office on February 16, 2026. He said the graduands comprised 4,828 undergraduates, 182 diploma holders and 628 postgraduates.

Mr Ibileye explained that the postgraduate category included 46 Postgraduate Diploma graduates, 162 professional master’s degree holders, 238 academic master’s degree recipients and 182 PhD graduands.

The vice-chancellor said the university would also confer honorary degrees on three Nigerians (Dahiru Mangal, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo and Babajide Kolade-Otitoju), in recognition of their contributions to commerce, industry, journalism and humanity.

He described the 10th Convocation as a significant milestone in the university’s 15-year history.

Mr Ibileye highlighted the award of a N3 billion grant by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to establish a Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Cyber Sciences as one of the major achievements of his administration.

He said eight academic programmes had secured full accreditation from the National Universities Commission, while 14 new programmes had commenced for the 2026/2027 academic session following resource verification.

The programmes include Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Data Science, Software Engineering, Psychology, Social Work, Criminology and Security Studies and Agricultural Economics, among others.

The vice-chancellor also said the university had submitted more than 50 research grant proposals to national and international funding agencies since appointing its first grants officer.

He said the institution had made significant progress in infrastructure development, including accessing various TETFund interventions, deploying 10 Starlink internet terminals and commencing construction of a pedestrian flyover at its main gate to improve campus safety.

On staff development, Mr Ibileye said 21 academic staff members benefited from N158.9 million in TETFund training support, while 190 out of 200 applications for conference sponsorship were approved, representing a 95 per cent success rate.

He added that the university had strengthened student welfare through leadership development initiatives, improved security arrangements, innovation programmes and support for beneficiaries of the federal government’s Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) scheme.

Mr Ibileye identified inadequate student accommodation, infrastructure deficits, rising operational costs and funding constraints as some of the challenges confronting the institution.

(NAN)