Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria at its creation in 1962 inherited the Engineering program from the Nigeria College of Arts, Science, and Technology, Zaria. The program was reorganized to award degrees in Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineering under the auspices of the University of London from 1962 to 1965. Thus, the Faculty of Engineering was born along sides the Departments of Electrical, Mechanical and Civil Engineering and they became fully autonomous in 1965. For many years after its establishment, the Department of Electrical Engineering, like other Departments in the Faculty, offered a 3–year Bachelor of Engineering degree program. With the adoption of the Student Work Experience Program (SWEP) and the Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), it became imperative for the programs to be changed to 4–year degree programs by the 1981/82 session. By the 1991/92 session, the University adopted the Semester System and now all the degree programs in the Faculty are 5–year bachelor degree (B.Eng.) programs.

During the 2010/11 session, the National Universities Commission, after a Resource Assessment exercise approved the change of name of the Department from Electrical Engineering to Electrical and Computer Engineering. They subsequently approved the splitting of the Department into the Departments of:
a) Electrical Engineering
b) Communications Engineering (now Electronics and Telecommunications)
c) Computer Engineering

These Departments were given full autonomy in November 2017. The content of the Computer Engineering programme is based on the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) of the NUC, international best practices and the need to acquaint the students with the appropriate knowledge, competencies and skills to face the challenges of the competition in the Computer Engineering eco-system engendered by globalization. This is especially necessary in the ever-changing world of ICT, AI, computing and networking, applications development, intelligent systems, robotics and automation, etc. As such the Computer Engineering programme in ABU Zaria is focused on the following themes:
a) Information/Computer Technology and Systems
b) Network and Security
c) Artificial Intelligence
d) Control and Intelligent Systems
e) Embedded Systems
f) Image Processing and Computer Vision

The undergraduate program is now structured such that students can select courses from modules under any of the following specializations:
a)Computer Systems and Networks
b) Artificial Intelligence (AI)
c) Control and Intelligent System