An AIG PLP Alumnus Turned 100,000 Lost Connections into a Pipeline for University Funding
Dr Adeduntan Segun-Olasanmi, Deputy Registrar & Acting Director, Advancement Office, Obafemi Awolowo University
When government funding falls short, public universities have to look elsewhere. At Obafemi Awolowo University, that meant turning to alumni. But without a system to reach them, that proved nearly impossible.
An AIG Public Leaders Programme alumna changed that by turning 100,000+ Lost Connections into a pipeline for funding.
Nigerian public universities receive far less government funding than international standards recommend, leaving institutions like Obafemi Awolowo University increasingly dependent on alumni to fill the gap. But a major problem was that the university had no systematic way to connect these alumni.
For years, alumni engagement had depended on personal relationships and manual processes that were impossible to scale. Decades of convocation records sat unconnected across 13 faculties. Tens of thousands of graduates had passed through the university's gates and quietly drifted beyond reach. The goodwill was there, but the infrastructure to harness it was not.
Dr Adeduntan Segun-Olasanmi, Deputy Registrar & Acting Director, Advancement Office, Obafemi Awolowo University and a cohort four AIG Public Leaders Programme (AIG PLP) alumna, understood that this was not just an administrative gap; it was a strategic one and closing it would require more than good intentions.
Drawing on the leadership and reform frameworks from the AIG PLP, she returned to OAU with a clear plan. She built OAUKonnect: a live digital platform anchored by a unified alumni database compiled from decades of institutional records across all 13 faculties.
The database grew from zero to 100,334 verified alumni entries. The first outreach message sent through the platform achieved a 43% open rate, nearly double the 15–25% industry benchmark. Alumni were not just receiving the messages. They were reading them, responding warmly, and expressing interest in giving back to the institution that shaped them. Philanthropic activity is now being tracked in real time through a live Donor Wall on OAUKonnect.
The project has since been submitted to the Vice-Chancellor for formal launch and scale-up, with plans to extend the model to at least one other public university in the Southwest.
What began as a data problem is now a funding pipeline. And for a public university navigating shrinking resources, that changes everything. But the impact reaches further. By rebuilding OAU's connection to its alumni, Dr Segun-Olasanmi has helped create a more sustainable model for how a public university funds itself. If that model scales to other universities across the Southwest, the effect compounds: better-resourced institutions, stronger graduates, and ultimately, a workforce better equipped to serve the people who need it most.