Tunde Onakoya, Sam Otigba, and AltSchool Africa’s HackSultan have launched a ₦250m scholarship fund for NYSC corps members, prospective corps members, and recent graduates. Successful applicants get ₦160,000 toward a 9–12 month AltSchool Africa diploma (choices include fullstack engineering, cybersecurity, cloud engineering, data analysis, product management, or digital marketing), plus mentorship, internship placement, and a shot at a free laptop. Apply only at altschoolafrica.com/nysc, no closing date announced yet, so get in early.
Onakoya teamed up with Sam Otigba of Jobs59 and Sultan “HackSultan” Akintunde, the co-founder of AltSchool Africa, to put this together. The target? NYSC corps members and recent graduates who want real tech skills, not just another certificate to add to the pile.
Let’s break it down small small.
What exactly is this scholarship?
Each person who gets selected walks away with ₦160,000 in scholarship value. Ten thousand of that covers your application fee, and the remaining ₦150,000 goes toward tuition for a diploma programme at AltSchool Africa.
If you’re not familiar with AltSchool Africa, it’s basically a tech skills school. No long grammar, no four years of theory before you touch anything practical. You pick a track, you learn, and you build a portfolio while at it. That’s the whole point of pairing it with this scholarship: get you job-ready in months, not years.
The programmes run for nine to twelve months, and here’s a detail worth pausing on: you can start applying for internships from as early as month six. So you’re not waiting till graduation to start knocking on doors.
Who can apply
This one is straight to the point. Three categories qualify:
- Current NYSC corps members
- Prospective corps members getting ready for service
- Recent NYSC alumni
So whether you’re camping right now, waiting for your call-up letter, or you finished service a while back and still haven’t found your footing, you fall under this.
What courses are on offer
You get to pick from six diploma programmes:
- AI-Powered Fullstack Engineering
- Cybersecurity
- Cloud Engineering
- Data Analysis
- Technical Product Management
- Digital Marketing Automation and Sales
Don’t just pick based on what sounds fancy. Think about what you’re actually drawn to, and honestly, think about the job market too. Fullstack and cybersecurity roles are everywhere right now, data analysis is quietly becoming a big deal in Nigerian fintech and telecoms, and digital marketing automation is one of those “everybody needs it but nobody trains for it properly” spaces. If you’re not sure, go with whichever one you can already picture yourself doing at 11pm without getting bored.
How to apply
The process itself isn’t complicated:
- Go to the official portal at altschoolafrica.com/nysc
- Fill the scholarship form with your NYSC details
- Choose your preferred diploma programme
- Submit and wait for eligibility review
- If you scale through, you’ll get admission guidance and next steps
No laptop? That’s covered too, but it’s a separate step. After you apply for the main scholarship, there’s an additional Laptop Scholarship Add-on application for those who need one. Not everyone who applies for it will get a laptop though, since it says “selected beneficiaries,” so don’t put all your eggs in that basket.
One thing to be careful about
Because this thing is trending hard right now, expect fake pages and “agents” to spring up claiming they can guarantee you a slot for a fee. There’s only one official portal, and it’s altschoolafrica.com/nysc. Nobody legitimate will ask you to pay money into a personal account to “secure” your scholarship. If anybody tries that on you, run.
Should you even apply?
Real talk: this is one of those rare cases where a scholarship isn’t just “free money,” it’s actually structured to lead somewhere. You get training, then career support, internship placement through Jobs59, mentorship, and portfolio help. That combo, training plus a direct pipeline to jobs, is the part most scholarships in Nigeria don’t bother with. Most just pay your fees and leave you to figure out the rest yourself.
The organisers haven’t announced a closing date yet, but historically, these high-demand programmes fill up fast once word spreads. Our advice? Don’t wait for the “last week” energy. Apply now while slots are still open, sort your NYSC documents ahead of time, and pick your track before you even open the form so you’re not stuck deciding on the spot.
If this is your ticket into tech, don’t let indecision cost you.
