Timilehin Ayantunji never studied computer science, but he’s helping shape how millions of Nigerians move money
Timilehin Ayantunji started out learning frontend development on YouTube. Today, he has worked on telemedicine products, digital banking features, accelerator platforms, and mobile money solutions used across Nigeria.
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Timilehin Ayantunji fell in love with technology in secondary school. Although it had not been his goal, and he could never have imagined a career as a Frontend Engineer, his love for mathematics and attraction to numbers, logic, and problem-solving were the earliest signs of the path he would eventually take. <br />
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Growing up in a modest household, numbers felt natural to him long before he understood how they might be helpful in a career. His earliest interaction with computers came through a family laptop bought for his elder sister when she was admitted to university. During her holidays, he would quietly use it to play typing games like Mavis Beacon, gradually becoming comfortable with keyboards and digital interfaces.<br />
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“I didn’t come from a computer science background, but I saw technology as a natural extension of the analytical thinking I had and enjoyed,” Ayantunji tells Techpoint Africa. <br />
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But his tech career only started after university. Following a university degree in Fisheries from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), he was accepted into an internship at a health-tech startup, MyMedicalBank, where he got the opportunity to learn quickly.<br />
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His first exposure to software development had come earlier through a short-lived internship. With no understanding of HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, he struggled to keep up in the fast-paced environment and was eventually let go. Rather than discourage him, the experience spurred him to seek more knowledge.<br />
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“I relied heavily on free resources. I spent countless hours on YouTube, particularly learning from Brad Traversy’s tutorials, slowly understanding frontend development fundamentals.”<br />
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So, when he eventually got an internship at MyMedicalBank, he was more prepared to excel.<br />
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Ayantunji recalls that the internship coincided with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was a pressing need for technological innovations that could quickly and effectively connect people with healthcare workers.He co...
