AltSchool Africa has a new chief executive. Founder and CEO Adewale Yusuf is stepping down, and co-founder Akintunde Sultan is taking over day-to-day leadership of the Nigerian online skills school, Techpoint Africa reported on 22 October.
The AltSchool Africa CEO change comes as the company reshapes what it sells. It is moving from running its own programmes towards licensing degrees through partner universities, a model Sultan compares to edX.
Why Adewale Yusuf is stepping down
Yusuf gave personal reasons. He told Techpoint Africa that travelling between the United States and Nigeria had become difficult and that he now spends far more time in the US. Handing operations to Sultan lets him spend more time with his family.
"It's time for me to move away and actually support the team from maybe the director and leadership point," Yusuf said.
He is not leaving the company entirely. His comments suggest a board-level or advisory role, though Techpoint's report does not give a formal title.
Who is Akintunde Sultan?
Sultan is one of AltSchool's three co-founders, alongside Yusuf and Opeyemi Awoyemi. The three launched AltSchool Africa in October 2021 under TalentQL, the talent company Yusuf set up after leaving Techpoint Africa, which he had also founded.
AltSchool's original purpose was practical. Nigerian startups were losing senior engineers to large global tech firms, and the founders wanted a steady pipeline of trained junior engineers to fill the gap.
AltSchool Africa by the numbers
Techpoint reports two figures from the company:
- More than 200,000 students on its platform, according to Sultan. The total is higher when learners reached through partnerships and licensing are counted.
- More than 1,000 students have used AltSchool diplomas to continue to degrees at other institutions.
The report does not include revenue, funding or the number of programmes the school runs.
The new model: an "edX for Africa"
The bigger story may be the strategy Sultan inherits. AltSchool is launching a product called Degree, in which a partner university licenses and awards the qualification while AltSchool provides the platform and learning experience.
Named partners so far are American Open University in Nigeria and Tomorrow University in Germany, with more to be announced.
"So AltSchool is now more like an edX for Africa," Sultan told Techpoint.
The approach has clear advantages for a company of AltSchool's size:
- No university licence needed. Owning a university in Nigeria means a long, expensive approval process. Partnering lets AltSchool offer degrees without one.
- Recognised credentials. Learners and employers trust a university degree more than a private certificate. Yusuf named accredited education as one of the company's main achievements.
- A path from diploma to degree. With more than 1,000 students already moving on to degree study, keeping that step inside AltSchool's platform could hold on to learners for longer.
The risks sit on the other side. Revenue depends on partners, quality control is shared, and regulators may look closely at foreign-awarded degrees delivered online.
A tense relationship with government
Yusuf told Techpoint that weak government support has been one of the company's biggest challenges in Nigeria.
That frustration has been public. In June 2026, the Federal Government partnered with Coursera on a Digital Training Academy to train 36,000 young Nigerians. Sultan questioned on X what AltSchool could have done to win such a partnership, a sharp reminder of how hard it is for local edtechs to compete with global platforms for public contracts.
What the CEO change means
Founder transitions at Nigerian startups often follow a crisis. This one, by the founders' account, is about geography and family rather than performance. Sultan was already running much of the business day to day, so the shift formalises how the company works.
The test now is execution. AltSchool has to sign more university partners, show that licensed degrees can be delivered at the low prices its learners expect, and keep growing in a tight funding market. For more on how Nigerian startups are faring this year, see our analysis of why Nigerian startup funding fell 97% in September.
For learners, little changes immediately. Existing programmes continue, and the Degree platform at degree.altschoolafrica.com is where new partnerships will appear.
