Build the automations businesses actually pay for. AI and automation training in Yaoundé and online

In short: AI & Automation at SmartSana Academy is a three-level programme in applied AI and automation. Each level is 11 teaching weeks at about 22 hours a week, on campus in Melen, Yaoundé, or fully online. Level 1, Applied AI & Automation Foundation, ends in the AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) certification and costs 135 000 FCFA in tuition at the founding rate for the cohort starting 10 November 2026 (150 000 FCFA for later cohorts), plus the exam at the vendor’s price. The next cohort starts on Tuesday 10 November 2026.

The three levels

Three months each, and you only ever commit to the next twelve weeks. Each level ends in its own compulsory certification, so stopping after any one of them leaves you with something an employer recognises rather than a part-finished course.

All three levels, published in full. Week one starts where the programme says it starts: we do not assume knowledge we have not taught.

Levels 2 and 3

Same shape: eleven teaching weeks at about 22 hours a week, a compulsory certification, and a capstone. Each is enrolled and priced separately.

Every level ends with a certification exam set, invigilated and marked by AWS, Microsoft, CompTIA, Meta, Databricks or the Python Institute. It is compulsory. It is the part of your record that does not depend on anybody believing us.

• It is read the same way everywhere. A recruiter in Lisbon, a hiring manager in Toronto and an HR officer in Douala all recognise PL-300 or AWS Solutions Architect. They do not recognise a certificate from a school they have never heard of, and neither would we in their position.
• It outranks our own certificate, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Ours records what we taught and assessed. Theirs records that an independent company tested you under exam conditions. If you only keep one line on your CV, keep theirs.
• It is portable across borders and across time. It is the credential that survives you leaving Cameroon, changing sector, or applying somewhere nobody has heard of your last employer.
• We buy the voucher for you, at the vendor’s own price, with no markup. Cameroonian cards are frequently rejected at Pearson VUE checkout. Solving that is our job, not yours. You pay us the equivalent in FCFA at the day’s rate.

On this programme

• AWSCloud Practitioner · Solutions Architect · CloudOps Engineer · AI Practitioner · ML Engineer · Developer
• MicrosoftPL-300 Power BI Data Analyst · DP-700 · AI-103

These certifications are set, invigilated and awarded by the companies named. We prepare you for them and we buy the voucher at the vendor’s own price. The marks above identify those certifications and imply no partnership with, sponsorship by or endorsement from their owners.

After Level 2, learners who meet the conditions are placed on a two-month remote placement with a partner company in the United States. We arrange it. It is unpaid, it is part of the programme, and it is described in full in the enrolment terms rather than in a headline, because people in this region have been sold bigger promises than this by institutions that could not keep them.

• Real tasks with a deadline, for someone who needs them done. What you produce goes in your portfolio with the host’s agreement.
• A supervisor who will take a reference call. That is the part a junior CV never has, and the part a hiring manager abroad actually checks.
• Two months of relevant work experience on paper, which is what immigration systems and remote employers count, where a certificate alone does not.
• Unpaid, remote, and not a job offer. Nobody is charged for it and nobody is paid for it. There is no travel. Neither we nor the host undertake to hire you.

Where this trade is practised

One trade, many places to practise it. The core does not change between employers; the vocabulary and the subject matter do, and those you pick up on the job.

What each level qualifies you for

What you leave with

What we will not promise

• A job. We can bring you to the hiring bar, prepare you for a vendor certification set to an international standard, put two months of work for a partner company on your CV and introduce you to employers. We cannot make anyone hire you, and any school that says otherwise is selling something.
• That it will be light. Twenty-two hours a week for eleven weeks. If that does not fit your life right now, say so before you pay rather than after.
• A visa. The internship and the certification both help an immigration file, one as relevant work experience, the other as an assessed credential. Neither is a visa, neither guarantees one, and we will never sell you one.
• An employment rate. We have not run a cohort to completion yet, so we have no outcome figures and we will not borrow anyone else’s. When we have them, we will publish them with the methodology, the cohort size, the date and the response rate, including the bad ones.

This is not a video library you dip into. There is a structure, and the structure is what gets people to the finish line.

Cohort calendar

Fees

Cloud, Data, AI and Marketing have the same tuition, because they run the same length, the same hours and the same coaching ratio. They differ only in what the certification exam costs, because the vendors set that and we pass it through without a markup.

Vendor exam prices are the vendors’ own, were correct in October 2026, and are re-quoted before you buy. They are in US dollars; you pay the voucher in FCFA at the day’s exchange rate when we buy it.

How to enrol

1. Take the quiz above, or skip it. It is a two-minute signal, not a gate.
2. Apply in about four minutes and pay the 10 000 FCFA application fee. One form, no documents, phone before email because here a call works. The fee is paid when you send the application, through Tara: Mobile Money, Wave, card or PayPal. It is your enrolment fee: paid once, not again for Level 2 or Level 3, and not refundable. If we admit you, it holds your seat. Not ready? Use the request form at the foot of this page instead and an advisor calls you first, with nothing to pay.
3. We call you within two working days. Fifteen minutes on what you do all day, what you want, which level fits, and whether 22 hours a week is realistic. If this is the wrong programme we will say so.
4. Decision in writing, then the enrolment terms in the language you choose, as a file you can keep. Nothing binds you until you accept them. After that, each tuition payment is refunded in full if you ask within 14 days of making it; the enrolment fee is not refundable. Read the certification cost before you accept.
5. Choose your cohort. A new one starts every two months; your fee carries over to whichever you pick. The first monthly payment is due at the start of the level, not before: 45 000 FCFA in the cohort starting 10 November 2026 (founding rate), 50 000 FCFA in later cohorts.
6. Orientation week. Accounts, tools, your sandbox, your squad, a tour of the campus. Then teaching starts. The dates for each cohort are in the Dates & fees tab.

Questions people actually ask