The McTaba Software & AI Engineering Program: What It Is, Who It's For, and What You'll Build

McTaba's Software & AI Engineering program is a structured, cohort-based training that runs for 30 weeks. You join a small group (around 10 students per cohort), attend live classes five days a week, and build production-grade applications from the first month.

The program covers three things in parallel:

1. Full-stack web development using React, Node.js, Next.js, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB.
2. AI engineering including building agents, working with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), context engineering, and using AI tools effectively in your day-to-day workflow.
3. The African Stack: M-Pesa integration, WhatsApp Business API, USSD engineering via Africa's Talking, Airtel Money, and the payment and communication systems that African businesses depend on.

Every project you build is designed to work in African markets. You will not build a to-do list app or a weather dashboard. You will build an M-Pesa payment system, a WhatsApp CRM, a chama savings platform, and a multi-tenant business operating system.

This is the same program previously known as the Full-Stack Web Development marathon, now expanded to include AI engineering as a core part of the curriculum.

Three types of people tend to get the most out of this program.

The underemployed graduate. You finished university a year or two ago, maybe with a degree in IT or business or something unrelated entirely. You have a job, but it pays poorly and has nothing to do with what you actually want to build. You tried learning to code on your own, hit tutorial hell, and never shipped anything real. You need structure, a deadline, and someone who will hold you accountable.

The career switcher. You are in your late 20s or 30s, working in a field that does not excite you anymore. You are drawn to software engineering but worried that you are "too old" to start. (You are not.) You need a program that respects your time, moves fast, and gets you to employable with a portfolio that proves you can build real things.

The self-taught developer who hit a ceiling. You can build basic CRUD apps. You have been through FreeCodeCamp, The Odin Project, or a handful of Udemy courses. But you have never built anything production-grade, never wired up a payment system, never shipped software that actual users depend on. You need to close the gap between "I can code" and "I can build products that businesses pay for."

The common thread: you want to build software for African markets, and you recognize that developers who pair AI fluency with local-market expertise are the ones companies want to hire right now.

Honest answer: the program is not for everyone.

• You want a certificate, not skills. This program is project-based. Your portfolio is your credential. If you need an accredited degree or a recognized certification for your employer, a university program is a better fit.
• You cannot commit 20 or more hours per week. The cohort has live classes, peer sessions, and weekly project deadlines. If you can only manage 5 hours on weekends, the self-paced Academy course is a better match.
• You want to build for Silicon Valley, not for Africa. The entire curriculum is oriented around the African market. If M-Pesa, USSD, and WhatsApp engineering are irrelevant to your goals, most of the practical value will not land.
• You already have 2 or more years of professional engineering experience. The early phases will feel too slow. Consider the self-paced Academy course where you can skip ahead, or explore our AI engineering guides if you just want the AI skills.

If any of these describe you, save your money. Seriously. We would rather you find the right path than sign up for the wrong one.

The curriculum runs across five phases. Each builds on the last, and every phase ends with a deployed project you can show to employers or clients.

Phase 1: Modern Web and API Fundamentals (Weeks 1 through 6)

You start with HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript ES6+, async/await, the HTTP protocol, REST APIs, Postman, and Git workflows. This phase teaches you how the web actually works before you touch a framework. By Week 6, you deploy your first project: an M-Pesa Paylink and Receipt Mini-App that triggers STK Push payments and generates PDF receipts.

Phase 2: Data, Logic, and CRM Engineering (Weeks 7 through 13)

MongoDB, Mongoose, PostgreSQL, JWT authentication, security fundamentals. This is also where you integrate the WhatsApp Business API and build your first USSD application using Africa's Talking. Your projects: a WhatsApp Lead Capture CRM that turns conversations into structured leads, and a USSD Customer Self-Service App where users dial a short code to check balances and request support.

Phase 3: Commerce and Fintech (Weeks 14 through 22)

Next.js, server-side rendering, state machines, M-Pesa/Airtel Money/Stripe integrations, webhook security and idempotency, Telegram bots, and cron-based automation. Two projects here: an E-commerce platform with WhatsApp order notifications and a Chama Savings Platform with recurring M-Pesa collections, group balance tracking, and automated reminders.

Phase 4: Production Engineering (Weeks 23 through 26)

Redis and BullMQ queues, microservices architecture, Docker, CI/CD with GitHub Actions, failover logic, and SMS gateways. You build a Booking and Appointments System with M-Pesa deposits and SMS reminders, plus a Multi-Channel Notification Hub that routes alerts through WhatsApp, SMS, or email with automatic failover when one channel goes down.

Phase 5: The Capstone Sprint (Weeks 27 through 30)

Multi-tenant architecture, advanced API design, and your own startup project. The capstone is The African SME OS: a multi-tenant operating system for small businesses that combines payments, USSD, WhatsApp, and CRM into one platform. You present at Demo Day to peers, mentors, and invited employers.

AI engineering is woven through the curriculum from Phase 2 onward. It is not a separate module bolted on at the end. As you build each project, you learn how to apply AI to the systems you are shipping.

The AI skills covered include:

• Building AI agents that reason, call external tools, and complete multi-step tasks. You learn how LLMs work (token prediction, context windows, function calling) and build agents using production frameworks.
• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) for giving LLMs access to your own data. Think: a WhatsApp bot that answers questions about a business's actual product catalog, not generic training data.
• Context engineering, which controls what information goes into an LLM prompt and in what structure. This is the highest-impact skill in applied AI right now, and most training programs skip it entirely.
• AI-assisted development in your own coding workflow. You learn to use tools like Copilot, Claude, and Cursor effectively without becoming dependent on them. AI makes you faster. It does not become a crutch you cannot code without.

Here is why this matters specifically for developers building in Africa.

AI tools default to Western assumptions. They suggest Stripe when you need M-Pesa. They generate English-only UIs when your users interact through USSD menus. They assume reliable broadband when your users have intermittent 3G connections. A developer who understands both AI and the African Stack can build products that AI alone cannot generate. The person who prompts an LLM to "build me a payment system" gets Stripe boilerplate. The person who knows M-Pesa's STK Push flow, webhook patterns, and reconciliation quirks can actually ship something that works in Nairobi or Lagos or Kampala.

That combination of AI fluency and local-market expertise is the core thesis of this program. It is also why we believe AI makes developers in African markets more valuable, not less. The developers who get replaced are the ones whose skills are generic enough for AI to replicate. The ones who thrive know things AI does not.

Every project solves a real business problem in African markets. No hypothetical exercises. No cloned tutorials. Here is the full list:

1. M-Pesa Paylink and Receipt Mini-App (Phase 1): payment links, M-Pesa STK Push, and PDF receipt generation.
2. WhatsApp Lead Capture CRM (Phase 2): turns WhatsApp conversations into structured leads with a web-based dashboard.
3. USSD Customer Self-Service App (Phase 2): customers dial a short code to check balances and request support.
4. E-commerce Lite with WhatsApp Updates (Phase 3): online store with cart, checkout, payments, and automatic WhatsApp order notifications.
5. Chama Savings Platform (Phase 3): group contribution management with recurring M-Pesa collections and automated reminders via Telegram.
6. Booking and Appointments System (Phase 4): salon or clinic bookings with M-Pesa deposit handling and SMS reminders.
7. Multi-Channel Notification Hub (Phase 4): a unified API that routes alerts through WhatsApp, SMS, or email with automatic failover.
8. The African SME OS (Capstone): multi-tenant business platform combining payments, USSD, WhatsApp, and CRM.

When you finish, your portfolio has 8 deployed applications demonstrating real payment processing, real API integrations, and real business logic. This is what hiring managers and freelance clients care about. Not certificates or course completion badges. Working systems you can demo live.

For a week-by-week breakdown with the technical details of each project, read the full curriculum guide.

Each cohort is capped at around 10 students. Here is how a typical week looks:

• 4 live classes per week led by an instructor. These are not pre-recorded videos. You are in a live session where you can ask questions, get unstuck, and work through problems in real time.
• 1 peer session per week where you work with other cohort members on that week's project or debugging challenges. Peer learning is built into the structure, not optional.
• Weekly project deadlines. Every phase has defined milestones. You ship on a schedule. This is the single biggest difference between the cohort and self-paced learning: you have a deadline, and someone notices if you miss it.
• Dedicated mentors who review your code, give feedback on your projects, and help you when you are stuck. Not a chatbot. Not a forum. A person who knows the curriculum and has built with the African Stack.

Career support is included in the program fee and kicks in during the later phases:

• Resume and LinkedIn optimization for the African tech job market
• Mock technical interviews
• Access to McTaba's hiring partner network
• Lifetime alumni community access via Discord

We do not publish specific employment rates or salary figures that we cannot verify. What we can say: graduates who actively job-search typically land their first role within 1 to 4 months. For verified outcome details, see our graduate outcomes page, which is transparent about what we know and what we are still measuring.

A quick, honest comparison. Dedicated deep-dives on each of these are available in the articles linked below.

vs. self-paced online courses: Self-paced courses (including McTaba's own Academy courses) are cheaper and flexible. They work well if you are disciplined, already know how to learn independently, and do not need accountability. The cohort adds live instruction, mentorship, deadlines, peer pressure, and career support. That structure is the product. If you have tried self-paced learning and it did not stick, the cohort is designed for exactly that problem.

vs. a computer science degree: A degree takes 3 to 4 years, covers theory and breadth you may never use on the job, and costs KES 600,000 to over 2 million at most Kenyan universities. It does give you an accredited credential, which some employers still require. This program gives you production skills and a portfolio in 30 weeks at KES 120,000, but no accredited certificate. If your employer requires a degree specifically, get the degree. If they care about what you can build, the portfolio matters more.

vs. other bootcamps: Most bootcamps teach a generic Silicon Valley stack (React + Node + PostgreSQL + Stripe) and stop there. This program teaches the same fundamentals, then goes further with the African Stack (M-Pesa, USSD, WhatsApp) and AI engineering. If you plan to work in or build for African markets, that difference is significant.

For a detailed head-to-head, see Cohort vs Self-Paced: Should You Join a Live Program or Learn on Your Own?

The program costs KES 120,000.

You can pay upfront (KES 120,000), in 2 installments (KES 60,000 + KES 60,000), or in 3 installments (KES 40,000 x 3). The total is the same regardless of how you pay.

All options include everything: live classes, mentorship, all project materials, career support, mock interviews, and lifetime access to course materials and the alumni community.

What is NOT included: a laptop (you need your own), internet access, and any third-party API costs for services like Africa's Talking or Twilio during development (most offer free tiers that cover what you need during the program).

We accept M-Pesa and PayPal. You can apply here and we will walk you through the payment process.

The application is a short form. There is no entrance exam, no coding challenge, and no interview (though we may reach out to chat if we have questions about your goals). We read every application individually.

Cohorts are small (around 10 students), so spots fill on a rolling basis. If a cohort is full, you will be offered a spot in the next one.

Three steps:

1. Fill out the application form.
2. We review and respond within a few days.
3. Confirm your spot with the upfront payment or first installment.

If you are not sure yet, that is completely fine. You can create a free McTaba Academy account to explore the curriculum, or join the Discord and ask current students or alumni anything.