A guide for career changers
How to become a business analyst in Nigeria.
What the job involves, what to learn first, and how to show employers you can do the work, even if you are starting from a different career.
The role
What a business analyst does.
A business analyst works out what an organisation needs before anyone builds or buys anything, then writes it down so it can be built, tested and agreed. The role sits between the people who run the business and the people who change it: product teams, developers, vendors and project managers.
Day to day, that means:
- Interviewing stakeholders and running workshops to understand the problem.
- Mapping how work happens today and how it should happen, usually in BPMN.
- Writing business requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Checking that what is delivered matches what was agreed, through user acceptance testing (UAT).
In Nigeria
Where business analysts work.
Wherever an organisation is changing how it works with technology. In Nigeria that includes commercial and microfinance banks, fintechs and payment companies, insurers, government agencies, consulting firms, and companies building apps and platforms.
Job titles vary. Business analyst, IT business analyst, systems analyst, process analyst and product analyst often describe overlapping work, so read the duties in a job advert, not only the title.
Skills
What to learn first.
The tools matter less than the thinking. You will meet Jira and Confluence, a diagramming tool such as draw.io, Visio or Lucidchart, and plenty of Excel.
Elicitation
Asking good questions in interviews and workshops, and noticing what people leave out.
Requirements
Business requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria a team can build and test from.
Process mapping
Current and future processes drawn in BPMN, the notation most delivery teams read.
Stakeholders
Knowing who a change affects, what each of them needs, and keeping them agreed.
Data basics
Confident spreadsheets, and enough SQL to check facts for yourself.
Testing and delivery
Planning UAT, and working in agile teams with backlogs and sprints.
The path
A path for career changers.
Five steps, in this order. Each one leaves you with something to show.
- Learn the foundationsThe role, the vocabulary, the documents
- Practise on one caseA real problem, from brief to sign-off
- Build a portfolioRequirements, BPMN maps, stories, a test plan
- Rewrite your CVAround the analysis you have done
- Practise interviewsExplain your work out loud
Use the experience you already have
Many people do parts of the job before they have the title. If you have improved a process in operations, spotted a pattern in customer complaints, or tested a new system before it went live, that is analysis. Name it that way on your CV and in interviews.
Do you need a certification?
Not to start. What helps most early on is evidence that you can do the work, which a certificate cannot show on its own. Later, certification can help: the IIBA's ECBA is aimed at people starting out, and its CCBA and CBAP are for analysts with experience.
Where the BA Bridge Cohort fits
It follows this path in twelve weeks, live online on West Africa Time, in a cohort of 10 to 15 people. You work one case for Lantern MFB, a fictional microfinance bank, and leave with a requirements document, BPMN maps, a user story backlog and a UAT plan, plus a CV rewrite and a mock interview.
Questions career changers ask
Something else? Email info@practevahq.com
Can I become a business analyst without a technical background?
Yes. The role is about understanding how work happens and writing it down clearly. People move into it from operations, customer service, finance, sales and teaching, among other jobs. Technical knowledge helps later, and you can build it as you go.
Do I need to learn to code?
No. You need to understand systems well enough to describe what they should do. Some SQL is useful for checking data yourself, but writing code is the developers' job.
How long does it take to become a business analyst?
It depends on where you start. A structured programme such as the BA Bridge Cohort takes twelve weeks; after that, how long it takes to land a role depends on your experience, your portfolio and the jobs you apply for. We don't promise jobs or timelines.
Is business analysis the same as data analysis?
No, though they overlap. A data analyst works mainly with data to answer questions. A business analyst works mainly with people and processes to define what a change should do, and uses data as one source of evidence.
Where can I learn business analysis in Nigeria?
From books such as the IIBA's BABOK Guide, self-paced online courses, or a live programme with feedback on your work. The BA Bridge Cohort is Practeva's live online programme, built around one case and the documents analysts write.