The present paper deals with the analysis of boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a stretching circular cylinder in the presence of non-uniform heat source/sink. The governing system of partial differential equations is converted to ordinary differential equations by using similarity transformations, which are then solved numerically using the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method with shooting technique. The solutions for the temperature and nanoparticle concentration distributions depend on six parameters, Prandtl number Pr, Lewis number Le, the Brownian motion parameter Nb, the thermophoresis parameter Nt, and non-uniform heat generation/absorption parameters A*, B*. Numerical results are presented both in tabular and graphical forms illustrating the effects of these parameters on thermal and concentration boundary layers. The results reveal that increasing the value of non-uniform heat generation/absorption parameters as well as Brownian motion parameter and thermophoresis parameter lead to deterioration in heat transfer rates at the stretching cylinder wall. Moreover, it is found that increasing the value of non-uniform heat generation/absorption parameters results in enhancement the reduced Sherwood number.