This paper aimed at stressing the role of academic advising in enhancing the academic performance of students in Nigerian universities. From the onset, a sensitization programme was designed to raise an awareness of the members of the University community, alongside other stakeholders on the availability of opportunities for prospective students to pursue a number of academic programmes on offer. Six months into the academic year of the first entrants to the university a robust academic advising scheme was developed to support student needs. Similar studies from other researchers support our findings that there is a positive correlation between effective academic advising and student academic performance. Absence of or poor academic advising has a detrimental effect on student performance. There was a strong rationale to project the need to adopt a predefined structure of academic advising model to operate with. This served as a guide for developing a student advising model, with student individual educational plans, in the university. Academic advising should become a mandatory role to every member of the academic faculty. A strong academic advising scheme will invariably promote student retention and graduation, especially in Nigeria universities, considering the interplay between the current social and economic pressures.