Microsoft trained 4 million Nigerians in tech skills in 3 years. 70,000 got certified

When Microsoft executives in Nigeria and government officials first began discussing a national digital skills partnership in 2021, the ambition sounded almost implausible: reach five million Nigerians with future-ready digital and AI skills. At the time, Nigeria was grappling with rising unemployment, a widening skills gap, and an education system struggling to keep pace with global technological change. By December 2024, Microsoft and its partners had trained four million Nigerians in AI, software development, data engineering, and other digital skills and certified 70,000 of them.

The scale of that effort, Microsoft insists, was not accidental. It was the product of deliberate collaboration with government, academia, and civil society, designed not just to teach Nigerians how to use technology, but to prove, through certification, that they could compete in a global digital economy.

From vision to national scale

The initiative took shape through sustained engagement between Microsoft and the Nigerian government, driven by a shared concern around employability. Nigeria’s unemployment rate in 2021 was estimated at 35% by the credit rating agency, Agusto. According to Nonye Ujam, Director of Government Affairs at Microsoft West Africa, the initial conversations were less about technology and more about economic outcomes.

“The government was very focused on employability,” she said during a press briefing on Tuesday, December 16, 2025. “Our discussions centred on how digital skills could translate into real economic opportunity.”

Microsoft entered as a technical partner, aligning its skilling platforms with government priorities. The result was a programme designed to operate at a national scale, using online platforms and local delivery partners to reach Nigerians across states, sectors, and income levels. By the end of the first phase, four million people had accessed Microsoft’s digital learning resources, a figure the company describes as “reach.”

But reach, Microsoft argues, is only the starting point.

Engagement, training, and the certification gap

Of the four million Nigerians reached, about 350,000 went beyond passive exposure and actively engaged with Microsoft’s skilling platforms. Most significant, however, was the number who earned formal certifications.

“Certification is the proof,” Ujam said. “It’s the evidence that someone didn’t just start a programme, but finished it and met a global standard.”

In total, 70,000 Nigerians earned Microsoft-backed certifications, credentials that are verifiable, globally recognised, and often required for technical employment. Microsoft executives emphasise that this distinction matters, especially in labour markets where informal learning is widespread but difficult to validate.

Without certification, Ujam noted, learners are often forced to repeatedly prove their competence. With it, they carry a portable signal of skill that employers can trust.

Targeting three critical groups

To scale effectively, Microsoft structured its skilling strategy around three key groups. The first was organisational leaders—public and private sector decision-makers responsible for approving technology investments and setting strategic direction. Many of these leaders are not technical, but their understanding of AI and digital transformation determines whether organisations adopt new tools at all.

The second group was developers, the engineers and technologists building systems across Nigeria’s economy. For them, Microsoft focused on deep technical skills, ensuring access to modern development tools, cloud platforms, and AI frameworks.

The third group was everyday technology users. Microsoft refers to this as AI fluency: the ability to understand, use, and question AI systems responsibly. The aim was to prevent AI from becoming an elite skill, accessible only to specialists.

“These three personas form the ecosystem,” Ujam explained. “If one is missing, transformation slows down.”

The role of local partners

Microsoft insists it could not have delivered this programme alone. Central to its strategy was working through Nigerian institutions that understood local realities.

One of its most prominent partners was Data Science Nigeria, which helped design and deliver training programmes tailored to Nigerian contexts. According to Aanu Oyeniran, Business Lead at Data Science Nigeria, the partnership succeeded because it went beyond generic online courses.

“We didn’t just reuse existing content,” he said. “We built blended, relatable curricula with Nigerian examples.”

The approach included a hub-and-spoke delivery model, enabling learning centres across the country to provide access to computers, internet connectivity, and trainers. Through this structure, trainers themselves became multipliers, passing skills into their communities in a cascading model of impact.

Oyeniran cited the example of a trainer in Edo State who, after completing Microsoft’s train-the-trainer programme, began helping small businesses in his community analyse data and improve operations. He has since trained others, extending the programme’s reach far beyond its original footprint.

Building AI leadership in government

Another critical partner was Lagos Business School (LBS), which worked with Microsoft to design AI leadership programmes for public sector executives. Olayinka David-West, Dean and Professor of Information Systems at LBS, said the focus was on absorption capacity rather than hype.

“You can build all you want,” she said, “but if there is no capacity to absorb it in government and business, you’re building for the sake of building.”

Through the partnership, 99 senior public servants from 58 government agencies completed intensive AI leadership training. Participants were required to develop capstone projects tied to their agencies’ mandates, ensuring that learning translated into practical application.

The goal, David-West explained, was to equip leaders who could ask the right questions about AI risks, governance, infrastructure, and value creation—rather than merely approving technology purchases they did not fully understand.

Aligning with Nigeria’s National AI Strategy

Microsoft’s skilling programmes run in parallel with Nigeria’s National AI Strategy, a policy framework co-created by more than 100 AI experts of Nigerian descent from around the world. Microsoft participated in the process as an industry partner, contributing global insights while adapting them to local constraints.

Abideen Yusuf, General Manager of Microsoft Nigeria and Ghana, said Nigeria’s demographic profile of over 200 million people makes the effort urgent. With a median age of about 18 and low current AI adoption rates, the country faces a narrow window to position itself competitively.

“AI adoption in Nigeria is still under 10%,” he said. “But the potential upside is enormous.”

Microsoft sees skills development as the foundation for broader AI readiness, alongside infrastructure, connectivity, and power. While the company does not control those elements, it argues that without a skilled workforce, investments in data centres and cloud services will not translate into economic growth. A September 2025 analysis by TechCabal Insights identified 26 data centre facilities in Nigeria, but none are equipped to support AI workloads.

Beyond the numbers

Microsoft executives are careful to note that the publicly reported figures do not capture the full scope of its skilling efforts. Separate enterprise-focused programmes train employees inside private organisations, often at more advanced levels, but are not included in government-facing statistics.

Still, the four million reached and 70,000 certified represent a rare attempt at digital skills delivery at a population scale in Nigeria. The company has renewed its commitment, announcing a further one-million-dollar investment to upskill an additional one million Nigerians.

For Microsoft, the long-term bet is that skills, once seeded, will compound.

“We think of impact like an inverse pyramid,” Ujam said. “One person learns, then teaches others, who teach others again. That’s how scale really happens.”

Sustaining that momentum will hinge not just on Microsoft but also on consistent government support, continued infrastructure investment, and Nigeria’s capacity to integrate newly skilled workers into the economy. Microsoft has indicated it aims to achieve the remainder of its training target by June 2026.