Labano Academy - About us

Built out of frustration with how tech education worked in Africa.

Labano Academy started in Lagos in 2020 with a simple problem: the people we knew were talented, curious, and motivated — but the available paths into tech were either too expensive, too academic, or completely irrelevant to the actual jobs being hired for.

The first cohort was 12 students. We ran it out of a co-working space with one instructor, a rough curriculum, and a lot of honest conversations about what employers actually wanted. Two of those 12 students landed jobs within three months. That was enough proof.

"We didn't build Labano to hand out certificates. We built it to change the trajectory of people's lives — one job offer at a time."

We rebuilt the curriculum from the ground up around real outcomes — hiring-manager feedback, active job postings, and post-graduation interviews with every student we placed. Every iteration made the programme more practical and more effective.

Today, Labano trains students across Cybersecurity, AI Automation, Data Analysis, Digital Marketing, and Web Development — with a 87% job placement rate and alumni at Flutterwave, Andela, Paystack, Interswitch, Kuda Bank, and Microsoft.

We're not the biggest tech school in Africa. We intend to be the best one — measured not by enrolments, but by outcomes.

Principles we refuse to compromise on.

These aren't mission-statement words. They're the things we actually argue about in team meetings and build into every programme decision.

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Outcomes over certificates

We measure success by job offers and client revenue — not enrolment numbers or graduation rates. If a student graduates and doesn't find work, we take that personally.

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Practical over theoretical

Every class builds something real. Every project has a brief a real employer could have written. You leave with a portfolio, not just lecture notes.

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African-first perspective

Our case studies, client scenarios, and hiring networks are grounded in the African tech ecosystem. We're not translating a foreign curriculum — we're building the right one.

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Honesty with students

We tell students what a track actually requires before they enrol. We don't oversell timelines. We don't promise jobs we can't deliver. Trust is the only brand we have.

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Keep updating or become irrelevant

The tools change fast. Our curriculum review cycle is quarterly. If something new matters to employers, we build it into the programme — not in the next edition, now.

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Community is the product

Your cohort becomes your network. Alumni open doors for each other. The community group is active years after graduation. That's not accidental — we design for it.

Practitioners who've done the work.

Every instructor and team member at Labano has worked in the field they teach. No pure academics. No career tutors. People who've shipped products, run campaigns, and broken into systems.

Kelechi Okonkwo

Head of Cybersecurity Instruction

Cybersecurity

Funmilayo Adeyemi

Lead Instructor, AI Automation

AI Automation

Babatunde Idowu

Data Analysis Track Lead

Data Analysis

Ngozi Eze

Head of Careers & Placement

Careers

We exist to make tech careers accessible to every African.

Close the gap between African talent and global tech opportunity.

Built out of frustration with how tech education worked in Africa.

Principles we refuse to compromise on.

Practitioners who've done the work.

One academy. Twelve countries. One goal.

Be part of what we're building.