President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Omoyemi Akerele, the founder of the Lagos Fashion Week, on emerging as the only African to win the 2025 edition of the Earthshot Prize at the award ceremony held at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This was disclosed in a Friday statement signed by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
According to the statement, Tinubu commended Akerele for her visionary enterprise in boosting the Lagos Fashion Week to a platform with a keen eye for innovation and environmentally sustainable creativity.
The statement reads, “Ms Akerele’s Lagos Fashion Week emerged as the only African enterprise and one of the five winners of the £5 million Earthshot Prize for 2025 at the award ceremony held at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday.
“The innovative platform beat 2,500 nominees from 72 countries to clinch the prize and will receive £1 million, about N1.9 billion.”
It added, “The Earthshot Prize is one of the world’s prestigious environmental awards dedicated to discovering and scaling innovative climate solutions. The £50 million prize was instituted in 2020 by Britain’s Prince William.
“Lagos Fashion Week won the award in the ‘Build a Waste-Free World’ category for redefining Africa’s fashion industry through sustainability.
“President Tinubu commends Ms Akerele for her visionary enterprise, noting that the Lagos Fashion Week has not only become a platform for innovation but also for environmentally sustainable creativity.”
“The President describes the feat as a clear demonstration of the audacity of vision and purpose, stating that the entrepreneur stands as an inspiration to many women and men.
“President Tinubu wishes Ms Akerele more success in her endeavours and encourages other Nigerian innovators not to relent on their dreams but to keep pressing forward until they reach the tape of success,” the statement concluded.
