Most Nigerian universities offer computer science and software engineering courses, but as we have come to know, most developers have had to acquire a lot of personal practise to get from a curious computer kid to the full stack developers (haha) they are today. How we know this? Check out the accounts of Nigerian developers on TechCabal’s coding series.
Still, we were curious about what universities Nigerian coders come from. So we decided to make a list, based on an informal survey of tech companies and developers who we are familiar with. Some are no surprise, while others that made the list are, well, interesting.
In a related development, there is a fair amount of chest thumping going on, on Twitter about how the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife produces the best developers. But that’s not what this list is about. In no particular order, here are the seven universities that have consistently come up in the course of our inquiry.
1. Covenant University
Covenant University is a privately-owned christian university located in Southwest Nigeria. The school is renowned for its stiff regulations that restrict the use of smartphones and internet, which is puzzling. Still it appears to have no problem churning out a considerable number of computer science graduates every year.
2. Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU)
We do not have the actual data to back it, but OAU has probably produced the largest number of active developers in Nigeria. We suspect that it might have little to do with the actual computer science curriculum itself. But somehow, it seems that the school’s affinity for technology is so high that even students who don’t study computer science have been known to dabble — the Jobberman founding trio all attended the university, but only one of them actually studied computer science. Seun Osewa famously attended for a few years before abruptly deciding to drop out for no apparent reason (he was leading the class) and continue at the University of Abeokuta. Notable developers who came from OAU include Tim Akinbo, Opeyemi Awoyemi…and most recently Sayo Oladeji, who just won iROKO’s coding competition.
3. Babcock University
Babcock is a private university established and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Nigeria. For some reason, a lot of the developers who were featured in TechCabal’s coding series, came from this school. The most popular of them is Ofure Ukpebor a developer at Anakle Nigeria, who graduated from Computer Science with a first class. Anakle CEO Editi Effiong told TechCabal the company has “recruited from Babcock more than anywhere else”.
4. University of Nigeria (UNN)
We don’t know many developer alumni of this university located in the South East of Nigeria, but we know that approximately seven percent of Andela’s developers-in-training come from there. It’s also where Prowork CEO, Francis Onwumere began his coding journey.
5. Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA)
FUTA is a university of technology, one of the three in Nigeria, so it figures that there’ll be developers here. We know that’s where Fonebase’s Opeyemi Obembe studied.
6. University of Lagos
Easily the hardest university in Nigeria to get into, Unilag produces a ton of computer science graduates. And although some of the ones we’ve met swear they didn’t learn much from the actual computer department, Lagos being what it is appears to have compensated enough that some pretty good ones come from there. Unilag benefits immensely from being surrounded by practically every technology company that has a presence in Nigeria, not to mention being within spitting distance of the Yaba technology cluster.
So who’s from Unilag? CcHub UX ninja, Kene Udeze. Delivery Science co-founder, Chuka Ofili. Traclist CEO, Emotu Balogun…
7. University of Ilorin
Usually, Unilorin would not come to mind, but when we learnt that about 14 percent Andela fellows come from there, we had to put it on the list.
Nigerian? Developer? Your school is not here? And you are absolutely sure your school produces awesome developers? It can’t be fair. Choose your university from this quick poll and represent your alma mater.
Bankole Oluwafemi contributed to this post.
