Software engineer sharing practical insights on building reliable systems, remote work, and career growth in tech.
There was a time when the thrill of taking a project from idea to self-hosted reality felt like a rite of passage. A little server in the corner of your closet, a domain you begged your friend to register, and the pride that came with running your own stack. Today, the landscape has shifted. The cloud became the default, operations became a language, and the decision to self-host isn’t just about tech prowess — it’s about balancing time, risk, and focus. If you’re weighing the hustle of self-hosting a side project in 2025, here are a few considerations that matter beyond the hype.
A Pragmatic Approach to Application Security for Small Teams
Building resilient systems in unreliable environments isn’t just a theoretical exercise for the next big cloud-native keynote. It’s the daily reality for developers, operators, and product folks who ship software that lives in the wild: where networks flap, power dips, and hardware can misbehave. I’ve learned this the hard way, wiring up a service that seemed robust on test only to watch it buckle when a regional outage hit. The lesson wasn’t about heroic fixes but about designing for resilience from the ground up, in every layer of the stack.
Remote work has become more than a trend; it’s a practical reality shaping how Nigerian developers learn, collaborate, and build products that travel beyond borders. When I started coding back in Lagos, the idea of working from a coffee shop with a team in Europe sounded glamorous. The truth, over time, has been more nuanced and surprisingly empowering for those who navigate it with clear expectations and practical strategies.
When you wake up in Lagos, Abuja, or Port Harcourt and slide into your home office, the line between work and life isn’t just blurred — it’s a daily balancing act. Remote work promised freedom, global teams, and the chance to finally control your schedule. But for many Nigerian developers, the reality has a different texture: opportunity, yes, but with challenges that are uniquely local and deeply human.
The way we work has changed, and it isn’t just about where you sit during the day. Remote work is quietly reshaping how Nigerians think about career growth—what counts as progress, how you stack your skills, and how you translate that into opportunity beyond the city you live in. Let’s dive into how this shift is redefining career growth and what it means for you, whether you’re in Lagos traffic or a quiet street in Jos.
If you’re like me and you’ve got a side project that started as a hobby but keeps nudging you to level up, you’ve probably asked yourself this question more than once. Self-hosting — running your own server, domain, and infrastructure — sounds technically impressive and gives you control. But in 2025, with cloud services pricing, supply-chain realities, and Nigeria’s internet landscape, it’s worth pausing to weigh the real cost and benefit. Let me share a practical way to think about it, with Nigerian realities baked in and some concrete scenarios you can relate to.
Security can feel like a luxury when you’re wearing multiple hats in a small tech team in Nigeria. You might be juggling product deadlines, customer requests, and a limited budget. The truth is, you don’t need a fortress to start with, just a practical plan that fits your team size and your risk profile. This piece walks you through a hands-on approach to securing your application without the buzzword fatigue or sticker-price of enterprise-grade solutions.
Nigeria, like many emerging markets, teaches you resilience by force. The grid cuts out, the internet jitters, and you still have to keep a bank app, a logistics platform, or a small business tool running. Building resilient systems in such environments isn’t optional — it’s a core feature. This piece walks you through practical, no-nonsense strategies that work in real Nigerian contexts, with concrete examples you can adapt today.
Remote work has become a phrase you hear every week in the tech circles here in Nigeria. It sounds ideal — flexible hours, work from anywhere, and the ability to tap into global opportunities without leaving Lagos or Abuja. But the reality on the ground is more nuanced. It’s a mix of opportunity and friction, promise and discipline, especially for developers who are navigating the local internet, time zones, and the rhythms of Nigerian work culture.
If you’re in Nigeria and you’ve ever tinkered with a side project - a personal app, a small SaaS idea, a blog with a twist, or a niche e-commerce store - you’ve probably asked yourself a version of this question: should I self-host, or should I rely on someone else’s platform? In 2025, the short answer is: it depends. The long answer takes a bit more digging because your decision hinges on your goals, your risk tolerance, and the realities of tech in our local context.
In a crowded Lagos coworking space or a quiet Port Harcourt side office, your small tech team might feel like you’re David against Goliath when it comes to security. Budgets are tight, timelines are tight, and the last thing you want is a breach that derails your business. This piece is for you—practical, doable, and tailored for small teams in Nigeria. We’ll walk through a pragmatic approach to securing your application without drowning in the complexity of enterprise-grade security.
Building Resilient Systems in Unreliable Environments
Many of us in Nigeria woke up to the buzz of remote work like it was a new sunrise. It sounded glamorous at first - flexible hours, chances to work with teams abroad, and the idea that talent would finally be the only limiter. But reality has a lot more texture: time zones that stretch your sleep, internet drama that makes you rethink coffee as a lifeline, and the daily rituals of staying visible in a crowd that isn’t physically present. Here, we peel back the curtain on what remote work really looks like for Nigerian developers, with details you can actually act on.
In Nigeria, and many other parts of Africa, reliability isn’t a luxury - it’s a daily requirement. You might have a two-hour power cut in the middle of a critical deployment window, or a telecom network that hiccups just as you push an update. Building systems that keep functioning when the conditions are far from perfect isn’t about chasing perfection; it’s about designing for graceful degradation, quick recovery, and predictable behavior under stress. Here are practical, Nigeria-relevant approaches to building resilient systems that survive and thrive in unreliable environments.
The Reality of Remote Work for Nigerian Developers
Technical work in Nigeria can feel like you’re shouting into a storm. You ship a feature, then chase down a dozen people to understand how it works. The problem isn’t that engineers aren’t capable — it’s that our docs often miss what matters: clarity, relevance, and a sense of practical usefulness. If you’ve ever written a long document that nobody reads or, worse, nobody acts on, this piece is for you. Below is a pragmatic approach to crafting docs that Nigerian engineers will actually open, skim efficiently, and apply without a second thought.
Writing Docs That Other Engineers Will Actually Read
Small teams in the tech space often feel like they're playing catch-up with security. You're building an app, hustling to launch, and suddenly there's a news story about a data breach that makes your stomach drop. In Nigeria, where startups in Lagos or Abuja are bootstrapping with limited budgets and talent, ignoring application security isn't just risky - it's a fast track to losing user trust and your hard-earned progress. But here's the thing: you don't need a full-time security expert or enterprise-grade tools to get started. A pragmatic approach means focusing on what matters most, right now, without burning out your team.
In Nigeria, building anything reliable feels like a battle against the odds. You've got power flickering out without warning - what we used to call NEPA issues, now with more generators humming in the background. Internet drops mid-call, roads flood during rainy season, and even the simplest supply chain can grind to a halt because of traffic or fuel scarcity. For tech folks like us, this unreliability isn't just annoying; it's a daily grind that tests every system we build. Whether you're a developer in Lagos crafting an e-commerce app or a sysadmin in Abuja managing a startup's servers, resilient systems aren't a luxury - they're survival gear.
Remote work sounds like a dream for many Nigerian developers - coding from the comfort of your Lagos apartment, earning dollars while sipping garri in the afternoon. But let's be real: it's not all smooth sailing on the Atlantic. For devs in Nigeria, remote work comes with its own set of hurdles that can turn that dream into a daily grind. I've chatted with fellow developers from Abuja to Port Harcourt, and the stories are a mix of triumphs and frustrations. In this piece, we'll dive into the unvarnished truth, pulling from real experiences to help you navigate it better.
Writing Docs That Other Engineers Will Actually Read
Remote work has exploded globally, and for Nigerian developers, it's both a game-changer and a grind. Picture this: you're coding away in your small apartment in Ikeja, Lagos, with the hum of generators outside, chasing deadlines for a client in Silicon Valley. It's not the glossy LinkedIn dream of beachside laptops and perfect Wi-Fi. It's real life - power flickers, data bundles vanish, and family knocks on your door mid-Zoom call. But despite the hurdles, remote work offers Nigerian devs a shot at global paychecks and location freedom that local jobs often can't match. Let's dive into what it's actually like, the pitfalls, and how to make it work without burning out.