Mfòómé Bá’tí Europe (Banjika Ngo), Founder and Lead Instructor at WirfonCloud – WirfonCloud Academy, has stated that the global opportunity for African professionals in tech is real, but it is not automatic—it requires the right foundation, built in the right order. He made the declaration recently during an exclusive interview with The Post. He pointed out that after six years of training, what differentiates them from other cloud training providers is that they are selling the road, not the destination. According to him, everyone else sells the destination—Cloud, AI, certifications—but they sell the road that actually gets anyone there sustainably. Read the excerpts:
Excerpts:
The Post: Reflecting on WirfonCloud Academy’s 6-year journey, what has been the most surprising challenge you faced in the early years, and what milestone are you most proud of achieving?
Mfòómé Bá’tí Europe: The most surprising challenge was not technical. It was an assumption I had to fight — the idea that African learners needed simplified content. When I started, a lot of the feedback I received, even from well-meaning people, suggested I should water things down, make it easier, keep expectations low. What I discovered very quickly was that African learners are not lacking in capability — they are lacking in context. Nobody was teaching cloud and Linux using the world they already know. Every analogy, every example, every case study in most online courses came from Silicon Valley or London. My students in Kigali, Lagos, and Douala could follow the logic, but it never quite clicked the way it should. So we flipped that. Every concept we teach has an African analogy. DNS is explained using a telephone directory. A router is explained using the national post office. An AWS region is explained using MTN network coverage areas. When you explain technology using the world someone already lives in, the understanding goes much deeper. That was the insight that changed everything for us. As for the milestone I am most proud of: it is not a number. It is a moment. When Lilian Shulika Tata — who came to us as a diplomat, someone who had represented nations in international forums — became an Enterprise Architect and is now AI Governance Consultant advising organisations on responsible AI deployment, I realised we were not just teaching cloud. We were changing trajectories. That is the milestone. The fact that it keeps happening, student after student, is what makes me come back to this work every single day.
How does having an AWS Community Builder for 6 consecutive years reflect on the academy’s training quality, and what impact does it have on students’ job market credibility?
The AWS Community Builder programme is not something you purchase. It is not a marketing badge. It is a peer recognition from Amazon Web Services itself — awarded to individuals who consistently contribute valuable content, teaching, and community engagement around AWS technologies. It is renewed annually, which means it has to be earned again every year. Being renewed for six consecutive years, running in parallel with WirfonCloud Academy, tells you something specific: the content and teaching we produce is consistently recognised as genuinely valuable by the very company whose certifications our students are pursuing. For students, this matters in two ways. First, it means their instructor is not teaching from a textbook. I am active in the global AWS community — I know what is being discussed, what skills are in demand, what employers are actually looking for. That current, real-world perspective goes directly into the curriculum. Second, it gives students a credibility signal they can point to. When a graduate tells a hiring manager “I trained with an instructor who has been an AWS Community Builder for six consecutive years,” that is a verifiable fact. It is not a claim — it is a credential the employer can look up. In a job market where everyone claims to know cloud, the provenance of your training matters.
Your mission emphasizes serving “African learners globally.” How has WirfonCloud Academy adapted its cloud computing curriculum to address the unique needs and opportunities for African professionals in the global tech market?
“African learners globally” is the key phrase — and I mean it literally. Our students are in Rwanda, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, and beyond, but they are also in the UK, Belgium, Canada, and the Netherlands. The diaspora audience is significant, and their needs are different from learners on the continent. For learners on the continent, the adaptation is about context and access. Mobile first is important and that is why academy.wirfoncloud.com will be very valuable for our students – as this is the way they consume content. We use African real-life analogies for every concept because understanding is deeper when it connects to the world you already know. And we teach the IT fundamentals — Linux, Networking, Python — before Cloud, because most African learners do not come through Computer Science degree programmes. They are career changers, career starters, and professionals pivoting into tech. They need the foundation, not just the destination. For the diaspora, the adaptation is about pace and ambition. These are people managing full-time jobs in Europe or North America while studying. They need a course that is self-paced, rigorous, and produces outcomes that are internationally recognised. Kinyuy Tatiana, one of our graduates, is now a Platform Engineer in UK and he started with zero tech background. The same can be said of Boris Mongue who is an Application Manager in German. They built their foundation with us while working. That outcome is what the diaspora audience needs to see — that this is possible, from where they are, around the work they already have. The global opportunity for African professionals in tech is real, but it is not automatic. It requires the right foundation, built in the right order. That is what we teach.
Your tagline emphasizes “Stop rushing into Cloud — Linux, Networking & Python first.” Can you explain the reasoning behind this foundational approach and how it differentiates your academy from other cloud training providers?
Let me give you a number first: 90 percent of cloud server instances run Linux. Every virtual machine you spin up on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud — the vast majority are running Linux underneath. The containers, the automation scripts, the infrastructure pipelines — all of it sits on Linux. Now ask yourself: how many cloud training programmes start with Linux? They start with the console, the dashboards, the certification questions. They teach you to click buttons without explaining what is underneath the buttons. We take the opposite approach. Linux first. Then Networking — because you cannot understand cloud architecture without understanding how data actually moves. Then Python — because automation is the engine of modern cloud operations. Only then do we move into Cloud, because by that point, Cloud is not mysterious. It is familiar. Every concept connects to something the student already understands. Think of it like building a house. You cannot put the roof on before the walls — not because of a rule, but because physics will not allow it. The walls need the foundation. The roof needs the walls. Cloud is the roof. Linux, Networking, and Python are the foundation and the walls. Every student who has tried to put the roof on first has eventually had to come back and build the foundation properly. What differentiates us from other cloud training providers is that we are selling the road, not the destination. Everyone else sells the destination — Cloud, AI, certifications. We sell the road that actually gets you there sustainably. That is a different thing, and it attracts a different kind of student: one who wants to actually understand what they are doing, not just pass an exam.
Over 6 years, how many professionals have WirfonCloud Academy trained, and do you have any standout success stories of students who transformed their careers through your programs?
Over six years, WirfonCloud Academy has trained 500+ professionals across Africa and the African diaspora. But numbers tell only part of the story. The stories are what matter. Tatiana Kinyuy started from zero and is now a Platform Engineer — a senior infrastructure role where she designs and maintains the systems that other engineers build on. Not a junior role. Watch her full story: https://youtu.be/4q29nbxbADM . Boris Mougoue had zero technical background — not a career pivot from an adjacent field, but a genuine absolute zero. Today he is an Application Manager at a leading tech company. His story is the answer I give every time someone says “but I have no background in IT at all.” Watch Boris’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1xONPqdr0s .Lilian Shulika Tata was a diplomat. She negotiated on behalf of nations in international forums. Today she is an AI Governance Consultant — advising organisations on how to deploy and manage AI responsibly. That is a trajectory that combines her diplomatic experience with a technical foundation she built from scratch. Watch Lilian’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f5-DWNJpSM. Cham Zekebweliwai is a Senior AWS Infrastructure Engineer at Cancer Research UK in the UK, earning twice the average salary in his field. He started as a self-described technovice. Watch Cham’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqp5nzNQDSQ. Emmanuel earned three certifications in exactly the right order: Linux Essentials, then AWS Cloud Practitioner, then AWS Solutions Architect Associate. That sequence is Foundation First in action — and he has the paper to prove each step. Watch Emmanuel’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOcT-db-miI. Pride Achu went from technovice to full-time Cloud Architect. The practical project work — including site-to-site VPN projects he built at WirfonCloud — gave him the portfolio that a classroom certificate alone cannot provide. Watch Pride’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK2y3YjaCQg . Shuufay Kibeey became a full-time Cloud Engineer in two years. Not six months — he would tell you himself that anyone promising six months is not being honest with you. Two years of consistent, smart effort with the right foundation. Watch Shey’s story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO-hbi6O2uo. Every one of these stories is publicly documented on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@wirfoncloud — because we believe African success in tech should be visible, not hidden.
As you celebrate this 6th anniversary, what are your ambitious goals for WirfonCloud Academy over the next 3–5 years? Are there new certifications, technologies, or geographic markets you’re planning to expand into?
The immediate priority is completing the IT Fundamentals Series. We have Linux Fundamentals coming soon on academy.wirfoncloud.com. Networking Fundamentals and Python for Cloud Automation are in development. When all three are complete, students will have a structured, certified path from absolute beginner to cloud-ready professional — all built by WirfonCloud, all taught with African context. Beyond the courses, the next major expansion is corporate training. Individual learners are our foundation, but the real scale comes when organisations — telecoms companies, financial institutions, government ICT departments — recognise that their technical teams need this foundation too. We are already in early conversations with a number of African employers on this. Corporate teams that skip the Linux and Networking foundation consistently struggle with cloud migrations and infrastructure projects. We solve that problem at scale. On geography: we are deliberately building presence in Rwanda. Over the next three to five years, I want WirfonCloud to be the first name that communities across Africa recommend when someone asks “where do I start in IT?” — not because we advertised our way there, but because our students and alumni carry that answer with them wherever they go. The longer horizon is AI. Not the hype — the foundation underneath it. AI runs on Linux servers. It is automated with Python. It communicates over networks. When the dust settles on the current AI excitement and organisations realise they need engineers who understand the infrastructure AI runs on, Foundation First will be exactly what the market needs. We are positioning for that now.
For tech and non-tech professionals in Nso land, Cameroon, Africa and beyond who are considering cloud computing as a career path, what’s your most important advice for someone starting from zero, as your content suggests?
Nso land holds a special place for me personally because Nso is my roots. The first piece of advice is this: stop trying to start with the most exciting thing. Cloud, AI, cybersecurity — these are all real, all valuable, all worth pursuing. But they are the roof. And you cannot put the roof on before the walls. Start with Linux. Not because it is glamorous — it is not. Not because it is easy — it is not always easy. But because 90% of the servers running the world’s cloud infrastructure are Linux servers, and if you do not understand Linux, you will always be managing cloud from the outside. You will click buttons without knowing what is underneath them. That gap shows up in interviews, in projects, and eventually in your career ceiling. After Linux, learn Networking — how data actually moves between systems, what an IP address really is, how routing works. Then Python, because automation is the skill that separates cloud engineers who manage things manually from the ones who build systems that manage themselves. Only then should you go into Cloud. And when you do, Cloud will make sense in a way it never would have if you had started there. The second piece of advice: the timeline is honest, not short. Shufaay Kibeey in US, one of our graduates, became a full-time Cloud Engineer in two years. He would tell you himself that anyone promising it in three months is selling you something. Two years of consistent, deliberate effort with the right foundation — that is the honest answer. And two years from now exists whether you start today or not. The third piece of advice — and this one is for Nso, for Cameroon, for every corner of Africa where people are watching the tech industry from a distance and wondering if it is for them: it is for you. It has always been for you. The world just did not explain it in a way that connected to where you are. That is what we are here to change. Start where you are. Build the foundation. The rest follows. Visit us at academy.wirfoncloud.com and in a months time our updated website will be available at www.wirfoncloud.com — and watch what our graduates have built at https://www.youtube.com/@wirfoncloud
