Until that moment, you are a student. After it, you are a builder.

We are glad to announce that Toko Academy has partnered with SIRSTEVEHQ, one of Nigeria’s leading hosting and cloud infrastructure providers, to make sure our students and interns reach that moment much earlier than most.

Through this partnership, SIRSTEVEHQ is providing free hosting for Toko Academy students and interns while they learn. Not a demo. Not a sandbox that disappears at the end of the module. Real hosting, on real infrastructure, with the same tools professionals use every day.

You can read SIRSTEVEHQ’s announcement of the partnership on their blog.

Why this matters more than it sounds

Most people learning to code in Nigeria hit the same wall. The tutorials are free. The documentation is free. YouTube will teach you React at 2am for nothing. What isn’t free is the last mile — the part where your project becomes a thing that exists on the internet.

So learners stall. They build twelve projects that live only in a folder called projects on a laptop that may or may not survive the year. They finish a course with skills they cannot demonstrate and confidence they haven’t earned, because confidence comes from shipping, not from finishing videos.

And then they sit in an interview and get asked, “What have you built?” — and the honest answer is “a lot, but I can’t show you.”

That gap is not a talent problem. It is an access problem. This partnership closes it.

What our students actually get

Starting now, learners on our web development tracks and our interns working on live builds can:

• Deploy their coursework to real hosting from early in the curriculum, not at the end of it
• Work with the real stack — cPanel, domains, DNS records, SSL certificates, file managers, databases, email — the unglamorous infrastructure that every working developer touches weekly and no tutorial covers properly
• Build a portfolio that has a URL, not a screenshot
• Break things safely, learn what a 500 error actually means at 11pm, and fix it themselves
• Launch their own ventures on the same infrastructure, the moment they are ready

That fifth point matters to us as much as the first four. Not every one of our students wants a job. Many of them want a business. For those learners, the distance between “I know how to build a website” and “I run a business that builds websites” is mostly infrastructure and nerve. We can help with both.

We are big on real environments

If you have followed our work, you already know this about us: we do not believe in teaching technology in a vacuum.

Toko Academy runs from Yola, in Northeast Nigeria — a long way from where most of the country’s tech conversation happens. That distance taught us something useful early on. When you are on the periphery, you cannot afford to train people for a version of the industry that doesn’t exist. Our students will not be graded on how well they completed a lesson. They will be graded by clients who want a site live by Friday, by employers who want to see something working, by markets that do not care how good your notes were.

So we build our curriculum backwards from that reality. Our learners work on live briefs. Our interns ship for actual organisations. Our Young Innovators track puts children in front of real code, not drag-and-drop toys, because we would rather they meet the real thing early and find it friendly than meet it late and find it frightening.

Hosting was the one piece we could not hand them freely. Now we can.

We are also big on collaboration

We could have solved this quietly. Bought a reseller plan, absorbed the cost, said nothing.

We would rather say something — because the thing we most want to prove is that the ecosystem works better when we build it together than when we each build our own small kingdom.

Nigeria’s tech ecosystem has no shortage of ambition. What it often lacks is companies willing to spend something on people who cannot yet pay them back. Students are not a market. Interns are not a revenue line. Supporting them is a bet with a long payback and no guarantee, and most companies, understandably, do not make it.

SIRSTEVEHQ made it. That deserves to be said out loud.

So: thank you to Stephen Oduntan and the entire SIRSTEVEHQ team. Not for a sponsorship — for a decision. You chose to spend real infrastructure on learners who have nothing to offer you yet except who they might become. We do not take it lightly, and neither should anyone reading this.

If you are a founder, a developer, or a business owner in Nigeria looking for hosting, domains, cloud servers, or business email, we would ask you to consider SIRSTEVEHQ. We are not saying that because they gave us something. We are saying it because of what they chose to give it to. Support the companies that support the people coming up behind you.

What’s next

This is a starting point, not a finish line. As the partnership develops, we are looking at deeper collaboration — practical infrastructure workshops for our cohorts, deployment content built with SIRSTEVEHQ’s team, and pathways that take our learners from their first live site all the way to running their own client work on professional infrastructure.

To our students: you no longer have an excuse. The hosting is handled. Go build something and put it on the internet where the world can see it.

That’s the whole point.

Learn with us: tokoacademy.org
Explore SIRSTEVEHQ: sirstevehq.com

By joining this international movement, Toko Academy becomes part of a collaborative network dedicated to equitable, systemic change in education. The Academy will now have the ability to leverage Code.org’s open-license, high-quality curriculum to train teachers and provide students with foundational skills in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Driving Local Impact with Global Resources

As a member of the Global Partner Network, Toko Academy will focus on three key pillars:

• Localized Adaptation: Translating and adapting Code.org’s world-class curriculum to suit the specific cultural and linguistic contexts of students in Adamawa State.
• Teacher Capacity Building: Utilizing specialized professional development resources and online training to equip local educators with the tools to deliver high-quality CS instruction.
• The “Hour of AI” Movement: Leading regional participation in global campaigns like the “Hour of AI,” moving students from being consumers of technology to becoming creators.

“Our goal has always been to ensure that a student in Yola has the same digital opportunities as a student in any other part of the world,” said Daniel Ishaku, Founder/CEO of Toko Academy. “Aligning with Code.org—an organization that has already reached 42 million students globally—allows us to bring a proven, world-class framework to our community. We aren’t just teaching coding; we are shaping how education evolves in our region.”

Toko Academy’s partnership aligns it with a movement supported by global tech leaders such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. By utilizing Code.org’s research-backed materials, Toko Academy ensures that its students are learning according to the highest international standards, specifically tailored for the challenges of the 21st-century workforce.

About Toko Academy

Toko Academy is a leading technology training institute based in Jimeta-Yola, Adamawa State. With a focus on “Skills for Tomorrow,” the academy provides comprehensive training in software development, data science, and digital literacy. Through its CODEPLORERS initiative and adult professional tracks, Toko Academy is committed to building a robust tech ecosystem in North-East Nigeria.

About Code.org

Code.org is a US-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by young women and other underrepresented groups. To date, Code.org’s initiatives have reached over 42 million students and 1.7 million teachers globally. Its vision is that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science as a foundational subject alongside biology, chemistry, or algebra.

YOLA, ADAMAWA STATE — [March, 2025] — In a bold celebration of courage, innovation, and empowerment, Toko Academy, in collaboration with the Tent2School Initiative, hosted the groundbreaking event “Women in Uniform Breaking Tech Barriers” — an International Women’s Day (IWD) special aimed at redefining the narrative of women empowerment in Northern Nigeria.

The initiative recognized and celebrated women not only for their domestic and societal contributions but also for their potential as key players in the digital transformation of Africa. The event sought to enlighten and inspire women in uniform — from security to healthcare, education, and administrative sectors — to embrace technology as a tool for personal advancement and national development.

Empowering Women Beyond the Uniform

In her opening remarks, Mrs. Neido Geoffrey, the Honorable Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, commended Toko Academy’s visionary role in bridging the gender gap in technology.

“Adamawa recognizes and celebrates the strength of our women — not just as mothers and wives, but as professionals, leaders, and innovators. We must continue to give them platforms like this to thrive,” she stated.

Echoing her sentiment, Dr. Mary Paninga, Chairperson of the Adamawa State Planning Commission, urged women to take advantage of the digital opportunities around them.

“Technology is evolving fast, and women cannot afford to stand on the sidelines,” she said. “We must be part of the transformation — learning, leading, and innovating.”

Powerful Lineup of Trailblazers

The event featured an inspiring roster of female leaders, entrepreneurs, and advocates including:

• Mrs. Nnenna Mosugu, Vice President (Finance), American University of Nigeria (AUN)
• Mrs. Charity Ojonimi, CEO, Lillies Fashion Academy
• Mrs. Rebecca Shuabu, CEO, Beczee Events
• Hajia Aisha Bakari (Queen Hunter), Acting Commander, Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Services

An engaging panel session featured Barr. Leader Leneke, Hajia Zahra Idries, Miss Princess Oladipo, Lieut. Madaki Haruna, Miss Veronica, and Miss Ojomah (Menorah News) — who shared empowering insights on leadership, breaking barriers, and leveraging technology for social impact.

Technology as a Lifeline for the Future

In her address, a Toko Academy representative emphasized the organization’s mission to make digital skills accessible to all women, especially those in service roles who often face limited exposure to modern tools.

“Being a woman doesn’t disqualify you from learning tech — it’s your opportunity to stand out,” she declared.
“Technology is not just for coders; it’s a survival skill for the modern world. From digital marketing to cybersecurity, from AI literacy to entrepreneurship, women in uniform can harness tech to lead change in their fields.”

Participants engaged in practical learning discussions and mentorship connections, leaving with renewed confidence to pursue new pathways in technology and innovation.

A Platform for Inclusion and Progress

Toko Academy has positioned itself as a beacon of digital empowerment in Northern Nigeria, committed to equipping women, youth, and professionals with transformative tech skills. Through collaborations with organizations like Tent2School Initiative, the academy continues to foster inclusion, bridge knowledge gaps, and nurture leadership among underrepresented groups.

The success of “Women in Uniform Breaking Tech Barriers” underscores the growing momentum of women-led transformation in the digital ecosystem — and Toko Academy’s pivotal role as a voice, platform, and catalyst for the movement.

About Toko Academy

Toko Academy is a leading digital skills institution based in Yola, Nigeria, dedicated to empowering individuals and organizations through training in Data Analysis, Cybersecurity, Web Development, UI/UX, Artificial Intelligence, and more. With a focus on inclusion, Toko Academy is building a generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers who will lead Africa’s digital future.