Cohort 2 registration is closed. Cohort 2 is now in session. Registration for Cohort 3 opens soon — get the curriculum now and be first in line.
₦27M AI Engineering Scholarship
Mastering Backend is working with key strategic partners to give 200 aspiring AI engineers across Africa access to practical AI engineering training, career support, industry insights, and opportunities to take their skills into the real world. Cohort 2 is full and now in session. Everything below is the programme Cohort 3 will run.
Before Cohort 3
What happens when you join the list.
Here is the full programme sequence, and how to reach a person first if you would rather.
Immediately
The full six-week curriculum lands in your inbox, so you can judge the programme before you commit to anything.
When Cohort 3 opens
You hear the dates and the scholarship terms before registration goes public, while spots are still open.
If you have questions first
Join the WhatsApp community and ask anything about the programme, or email [email protected].
Join the WhatsApp groupNo cost to be on the list
Getting the curriculum and hearing about Cohort 3 first costs nothing, and when you do enrol you still get 3 days to change your mind.
Cohort 1 graduates
People who already finished this programme.
Recorded after Cohort 1 ended. Full names, so you can look them up before you decide.
Maximilian Ogbuabor
Backend engineer · graduated 2025
“Literally immediately after the bootcamp I got a gig to build a full-stack application for an NGO. This is my first big gig. The fundamentals of building a production-ready backend system transferred straight over to this project.”
Landed paid work after Cohort 1
Ifechukwu Ogidi
Backend engineer · 4+ years building systems
“In six weeks we went from core backend principles — hardening, caching, the tools to build systems that can serve up to a million users — to RAG systems, embeddings, vector databases and agentic systems with human-in-the-loop. It gave me the tools to build AI systems from the ground up.”
Scaling an AI system to a million users
Stephen Oba
Cohort 1 graduate
“There were a lot of concepts in AI engineering I had struggled with, especially in the RAG space. These six weeks gave me an understanding of how to communicate with large language models effectively, to create secure, robust systems that solve real problems.”
Built DocuChat in Python, not the course language
Maximilian Ogbuabor
On the curriculum
“We didn't just jump into AI. We spent a decent amount of time learning to build a production-ready backend system, and that is knowledge I apply in the systems I build today. AI became less of a mystery to me.”
RAG, MCP, tools and vectors from scratch
Programme partners
Who is behind the scholarship.
The fund and the teaching come from Mastering Backend. Career support and employer access come from Droomwork. Both work with the cohort from week one.
Programme & scholarship fund
Mastering Backend
Engineering education platform running since 2021. Provides the ₦27M scholarship fund, the six-week curriculum, live instruction and code review.
Strategic Talent & Career Partner
Droomwork
Africa's unified workforce platform, with a network of 15,000+ pre-vetted professionals. Runs career readiness, portfolio guidance, employer introductions and Demo Day.
What is covered
Everything in the programme.
The scholarship spot is the full bootcamp. Nothing is held back for a higher tier.
- Full 6-week bootcamp access
- Live sessions and recordings
- Code reviews
- Cohort community
- Career services
- Formal defence and certificate
- Lifetime access to materials
- 3 months MB Platform PRO
- Demo Day with hiring partners
The 6 weeks
Bootcamp
Timeline
Cohort 1 graduates single this out: the programme does not open with AI. You build a system that holds up first, then add the AI layer.Cohort 3 runs the same 6 weeks.
Week 1
Backend foundations
Production-ready backend systems before any AI. Structure, APIs, data modelling.
Week 2
Hardening and scale
Caching, reliability and the patterns behind systems that serve a million users.
Week 3
AI fundamentals
How large language models behave, and how to talk to them predictably.
Week 4
RAG and vectors
Embeddings, vector databases, and building a retrieval pipeline end to end.
Week 5
Agentic systems
Tools, MCP, human-in-the-loop, monitoring and observability.
Week 6
Capstone and Demo Day
Ship your project, defend it formally, and present to hiring partners.
Who can register
Beginners and working engineers, both.
There is no work-experience requirement. The programme starts from foundations and moves to production systems, so it holds people arriving from different places.
Complete beginners
You have not written production code before. The first weeks are built for you.
Career switchers
You are moving from another field, or another corner of tech.
Working engineers
You ship already and want AI systems in your range.
Students and graduates
No employment history needed to take a spot.
Strategic Talent & Career Partner
Meet Droomwork
Droomwork is Africa's unified workforce platform — businesses post jobs, hire pre-vetted talent, manage teams, automate payroll and remit taxes inside one system. It is not a job board and not a freelance marketplace. For the cohort, it means your career support is run by a company whose day job is placing African engineers into paid work.
What Droomwork brings to every cohort
- Career readiness sessions with industry insight
- Employer and hiring insights
- Portfolio guidance specific to market needs
- Career workshops and skill development
- Demo Day facilitation and employer connections
- Graduate transition support and job placement
Droomwork covers the full talent lifecycle — discovery, vetting, hiring, onboarding, project management, payments and statutory remittance — so introductions made at Demo Day run through infrastructure that already handles paying African professionals.
Droomwork
Strategic Talent & Career Partner
- Pre-vetted professionals
- 15,000+Pre-vetted professionals
- Find, hire and pay
- 48 hrsFind, hire and pay
- Hiring to payroll and tax
- Full stackHiring to payroll and tax
- Local and global placement
- Pan-AfricanLocal and global placement
Programme leaders
The people running the programme.
Teaching is led by Mastering Backend. Career support is led by Droomwork. Both are named, with public track records you can check before you commit to anything.
- Mastering Backend
Lead instructor
Solomon Eseme
Founder & CEO
Mastering Backend
Backend engineer and educator with 10+ years building production systems. Leads the weekly live sessions, sets the curriculum, and runs code review for the cohort.
- Has trained over 1,000 backend and AI engineers across Africa.
- Won the Tech Talent Catalyst Award at the Face of Rivers Tech Awards, 2025.
- Led AI Engineering Bootcamp Cohort 1 through to graduation and Demo Day.
- Droomwork
Strategic Talent & Career Partner
Fenibo Fubara
Founder & CEO
Droomwork
Has built technology that matched hundreds of African tech professionals into freelance work, and has spent a decade on the access side of education and employment. Leads career readiness and employer introductions for the cohort.
- Co-founded Edtify, where he facilitated tech training for over 8,000 university students.
- Created the Skillwave Project, aimed at training 23,000 Rivers State youths a year.
- Chairman, ICT & Commerce trade group, Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce (PHCCIMA).
Questions
Frequently asked.
Can I still join Cohort 2?
No. All 200 scholarship spots were taken and Cohort 2 is now in session. The next intake is Cohort 3.
How do I get a spot in Cohort 3?
Put your name on the list on this page. You get the full 6-week curriculum by email today, and you hear the Cohort 3 dates and terms before registration opens to everyone else. Nothing is charged to join the list.
What did the ₦15,000 cover in Cohort 2?
It is the learner contribution toward a scholarship-supported spot. The programme fee is ₦150,000 and the scholarship fund covers ₦135,000 of it. Your ₦15,000 gives you the complete 6-week bootcamp and everything listed above.
Why is there a payment at all if this is a scholarship?
The contribution keeps spots with people who intend to finish, and it keeps the fund viable for the next cohort. Across 6 weeks it works out at ₦2,500 a week.
What if I enrol in Cohort 3 and then decide it is not for me?
Sit the first 3 days of class. If you are not satisfied and you ask for a refund, we return the ₦15,000 in full.
Who can join the programme?
Learners at any stage, from complete beginners to experienced engineers. There is no work-experience requirement.
How many spots will Cohort 3 have?
Cohort 2 ran 200 scholarship-supported spots and filled them. Cohort 3 is sized when it is announced, and the list hears the number first.
When does Cohort 3 start?
The dates are not set yet. It runs live for 6 weeks and ends with the project defence and Demo Day, the same as Cohort 2. Join the list and you get the dates as soon as they are fixed.
What does Droomwork actually do for me?
Droomwork runs the career side of the programme: readiness sessions, portfolio guidance shaped by what employers are hiring for, interview preparation, and introductions at Demo Day. They operate a workforce platform with 15,000+ pre-vetted professionals, so the introductions run through infrastructure that already handles hiring and paying African engineers.
Cohort 2 is full. Cohort 3 opens soon.
All 200 scholarship spots were taken and Cohort 2 is now in session. The curriculum, the ₦135,000 of scholarship support per spot and the Demo Day all run again for Cohort 3. Put your name down and you hear about it first.
Get the curriculum. Be first for Cohort 3.
We will email you the full six-week curriculum today, and tell you before anyone else when Cohort 3 registration opens.