- President Tinubu congratulated Omoyemi Akerele, founder of Lagos Fashion Week, for winning the 2025 Earthshot Prize in the “Build a Waste-Free World” category.
- He praised her for championing sustainability and inspiring Nigerian innovators to pursue their dreams.
President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Omoyemi Akerele, founder of Lagos Fashion Week, after she led her platform to win the 2025 Earthshot Prize, emerging as the only African enterprise among the five global winners.
At the award ceremony on Wednesday, November 5, at the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Lagos Fashion Week beat more than 2,500 nominees from 72 countries to claim the £1 million ($1.3 million) prize, part of the £5 million Earthshot fund.
Britain’s Prince William launched the Earthshot Prize in 2020 to recognise and scale innovative solutions to environmental challenges. Lagos Fashion Week won in the “Build a Waste-Free World” category for driving sustainability and circularity across Africa’s fashion industry.
Tinubu praised Akerele for her visionary leadership, saying Lagos Fashion Week had become “a hub of innovation and environmentally sustainable creativity.” He stated that her achievement demonstrated “the audacity of vision and purpose” and called on Nigerian innovators to emulate her determination and keep striving for success.