Tosin Olugbenga grew up in Ekiti State, Nigeria, where academics were the pinnacle of success. It was only natural that after completing his first degree at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he pursued a master’s degree in physics. His path seemed clear: get a PhD, become a lecturer, and join the ranks of the academics he admired, but the Nigerian …

Ronald Eguh was the kid everyone called when something broke. A frozen phone, a dead laptop, mysterious Wi-Fi issues—he fixed them all. “I was the family IT guy,” he says with a laugh. Naturally, he wanted to study computer engineering. But like many Nigerian kids, what he wanted didn’t matter as much as what looked prestigious. His family pushed for …