The verdict in three sentences
In Ziguinchor, you can test your interest in web development without leaving Casamance or paying for a Dakar bootcamp at 500,000 to 1,500,000 FCFA. The course Discover coding: understand how a website works, taught in French, costs 25,000 FCFA (about 38 EUR) for 6 hours and has you write and publish your first web page in under a week. It is not enough to bill clients, but it answers the only useful question at the start: is this job right for me before investing more.
Why start small when you live in Ziguinchor
Web development attracts more and more high school pupils, students at Assane Seck University and employees in Casamance, with a simple promise: a job you can do remotely, for clients in Dakar, Abidjan or the diaspora. The obstacles are cost and distance. A bootcamp in Dakar means the course fee plus travel (ferry or road) and several months of housing.
| Option to learn coding | 2026 price | Length | Constraints from Ziguinchor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kolonell Academy, level 1 Discover coding | 25,000 FCFA | 6 h, 3 modules | None, readable on a phone on 3G |
| Kolonell Academy, level 2 HTML and CSS | 50,000 FCFA | Natural next step | None |
| Full Web development track (5 levels) | 350,000 FCFA instead of 450,000 | Beginner to junior | None |
| Bootcamp in Dakar | 500,000 to 1,500,000 FCFA | 3 to 6 months | Housing 75,000 to 150,000 FCFA a month in Dakar |
| Free YouTube tutorials | 0 FCFA excluding data | Scattered | Lots of data, no corrections |
| International online courses | 0 to 40,000 FCFA | 10 to 50 h | Mostly in English |
Before committing 1 million FCFA and a semester, 25,000 FCFA and 6 hours let you check that you really enjoy writing code and hunting for bugs.
What you learn in 6 hours
The course has 3 modules, 13 lessons, 32 corrected exercises, one quiz per module and a final project graded against a rubric: your personal page published online.
| Module | What you understand | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| The journey of a page | URL, domain name, DNS, HTTP, hosting | You follow what happens when you open the Wave website or your bank's site |
| Inspecting real websites | The HTML structure and CSS of an existing site | You fill in an inspection sheet for a Senegalese or Ivorian site using Chrome's tools |
| Your first page | HTML, some CSS, one line of JavaScript | You write your page in VS Code and publish it for free |
At the end, you have an address to share on WhatsApp, an annotated map of the web and a clear idea of the job. It is level 1 of the Web development track, the entry point to level 2 HTML and CSS, where you move from a single page to a complete SME website.
The web developer job: 2026 income benchmarks
To be honest: this first level does not let you sell websites. Here are 2026 orders of magnitude for the rest of the path, as a benchmark with no income guarantee.
| Stage | Level required | Indicative 2026 income | Typical timeframe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Curious beginner | Level 1 | 0 FCFA, learning phase | 1 week |
| Beginner front-end integrator | Levels 1 and 2 | Small jobs of 50,000 to 150,000 FCFA | 2 to 4 months |
| Intern at a Dakar agency | Levels 1 to 3 | 50,000 to 100,000 FCFA stipend | 4 to 8 months |
| Junior developer in Dakar | Full track | 200,000 to 400,000 FCFA a month | 8 to 14 months |
| Junior at a fast-growing start-up | Full track + projects | up to 500,000 FCFA a month | 12 to 18 months |
| Remote freelancer from Ziguinchor | Full track + portfolio | 150,000 to 400,000 FCFA a month, irregular | 12 months or more |
Mini case study
Learn this skill with Kolonell Academy
Short, practical online courses (taught in French), graded exercises, certificate. Pay with Wave or Orange Money.
Mamadou, 22, a geography undergraduate in Ziguinchor, is considering a 900,000 FCFA bootcamp in Dakar. Add 4 months of housing at 100,000 FCFA and 30,000 FCFA of travel: the venture would cost about 1,330,000 FCFA.
He starts with level 1 at 25,000 FCFA. Within a week, he publishes his page, finds he enjoys working out why his CSS is not showing, then moves on to level 2 at 50,000 FCFA. Had he found that coding was not for him, he would have lost 25,000 FCFA instead of 1.3 million. If he continues, the full track at 350,000 FCFA remains nearly four times cheaper than the all-in bootcamp. Illustrative calculation; costs vary for each person.
FAQ
Do I need a computer to take the course?
Lessons read on a phone, even on 3G, but writing your page in VS Code requires a computer, even an old one. A second-hand laptop costs around 100,000 to 200,000 FCFA in Ziguinchor.
What age or diploma do I need?
No prerequisites: the course is for pupils, students, employees and traders who have never coded. You just need to know how to use a browser and set aside 6 hours.
Will I be able to build websites for clients after this course?
Not yet: this level lays the foundations. To bill for websites you need at least level 2 HTML and CSS at 50,000 FCFA, and ideally the full track at 350,000 FCFA instead of 450,000.
Does publishing my page cost anything?
No, module 3 uses a free hosting solution. You get a public address to share without buying a domain name (budget 10,000 to 15,000 FCFA a year if you want one later).
How do I enroll from Ziguinchor?
You pay 25,000 FCFA by Wave or Orange Money, access is immediate and a certificate verifiable online confirms your success.
Take the next step. Enroll in Discover coding: understand how a website works: 6 hours, 3 modules, level 1 Beginner, 25,000 FCFA, verifiable certificate, taught in French. Pay with Wave or Orange Money. Questions? WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.