Peer mentoring programmes have become common in most universities to help students, especially academic struggling students in small groups. The objective of this paper was to examine the role of peer mentoring programmes in mitigating first year undergraduate academic challenges. Using a qualitative research approach, data was collected from fourteen peer mentors, seven programme co-ordinators for in-depth interviews and ten first year undergraduate students making use of the mentoring services for focus group discussions, given a total of thirty-one participants. The findings revealed that there are huge academic challenges facing first year students, especially those from poor socio-economic backgrounds. Some of these challenges include academic writing, challenge with a proper understanding and use of English and computer literacy. It was also revealed that three peer mentoring programmes were established. They include tutorials, supplemental instruction and writing advancement programme. These programmes have proven to be very useful in mitigating some academic challenges of first year students at the selected university. However, the programmes have their shortcomings, which need to be addressed. The study recommended that all peer mentors of the different programmes need continuous and proper monitoring and support \r\n\r\nKEYWORDS: academic challenges, peer mentoring, academic programmes, socio-economic background.

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