Bonvic Bundi

AI Buzz vs. Coding Grind A junior dev asked me, "With all this AI hype, should I vibe with code tools or puzzle out solutions myself, researching till it works?" I shared a story from my early days. I interviewed at a shipping line in Apapa, Lagos (name withheld). Arrived early, waited, then got a laptop and a task: Build a desktop app, connect to a remote DB, fetch data, show it on a WinForm. Catch? 40 mins, internet only for the last 10. Alone in the conference room, I did a quick scan for cameras—none, phew! I dove in with confidence. Designing the UI? Piece of cake, I had the form looking sharp in minutes. Setting up the database connection? Smooth like butter, no stress. But then, the task got crazy: complex schema manipulations, joining specific tables with tricky relationships, and converting data into formats I hadn’t tackled before, like XML to JSON. My brain was screaming, "Stack Overflow, abeg save me!" I was stuck, sweating, scribbling pseudocode on the paper, trying to map out the logic while the clock ticked like Lagos traffic at rush hour. I could feel the pressure mounting, second-guessing every line, wondering if I’d even get close to finishing. Right on cue, the IT guy walked in to enable the internet. I dove into forums, pulling code snippets, tweaking them like a tailor fixing a suit. But then, I spotted a remote connection icon on the taskbar—chai, dem dey watch my every move! At least they saw I put in work before I got stuck. With online help, I pieced it together. I was feeling like a boss. Then, part two hit: "Explain your code." I broke it down confidently, step by step, like I was teaching a class. But then, they tweaked the DB table—added new columns or something, changed data types—and told me to fetch the data again. Omo, the app crashed hard! "Wetin happen?" they asked. I fumbled, my mind blank, unable to pinpoint the issue. The tech lead launched into a scalability lecture, schooling me on how my quick fixes ignored edge cases and couldn’t handle DB changes. I felt small, like my code was a house of cards that collapsed. To the junior dev I said: AI is game when it come to quick mock-ups and proof of concept, but can you explain or fix it offline? Use AI for a scaffold, then rebuild it (copy-paste thoughtfully if you must). Focus on architecture, security, scalability—that’s what counts. How do you balance AI in coding? Share below! #CodingTips #CodingVibe

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Paying much attention to one thing means you are not paying enough attention to others, creating a form of blindness. As developers, we pride ourselves on focusing on long hours, deep work, and endless problem-solving. But sometimes, that focus blinds us. Many African developers spend countless hours building other people’s startups while their own ideas gather dust. It is not because we lack creativity or ambition, but it is because of tunnel vision created by stress and incentives. Incentive: any factor, financial or otherwise, that drives decision and action, is a strong contributor to tunnel vision. When combined with stress, especially financial stress, it becomes a dangerous mix that limits perspective and narrows creativity. These two forces make many young and brilliant African designers and developers focus only on short-term survival; the next gig, the next client, the next paycheck; instead of the bigger picture. We stop thinking long-term, and slowly, this cycle becomes the new form of remote slavery, where brilliant African minds build the world’s future, yet struggle to create their own. Meanwhile, tools like AI and Bubble (visual programming) have made it easier than ever to build startups faster, cheaper, and smarter. But if we only use them to power other people’s dreams, we will keep missing out on creating our own. It is time we shift our energy from just executing projects to owning ideas. To stop being just the hands behind innovation and start being the minds that lead it. Have a product idea and need a developer co-founder? Let us connect and build it together.

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My good friend Joshua Nwachukwu and I spent days debugging push notifications for an app. Here's what actually happened 👇 While building the app that alerts users when products drop in price, push notifications are very important, they worked perfectly during local development but the moment it was shipped as a real build, background and killed-state notifications completely stopped, but foreground notifications were working. Foreground means notifications that appear while the app is open. Killed-state notifications are notification that happen even when the app has been forced to close. I did what any developer does when hit by a new challenge by watching YouTube videos, read GitHub issues went through Stack Overflow answers with hundreds of upvotes. Tried solution after solution, each one looked right but none of them worked. What I didn't realise was most of those answers were written before June 2024 but Google deprecated their FCM Legacy API that month, so every highly-voted answer was technically correct... for a world that no longer exists. Here's the thing about Expo Go that nobody warns you about. When you test push notifications locally, it works beautifully; Background notifications, killed-state, everything. This is because Expo Go uses Expo's own Firebase credentials to deliver notifications, not yours. The moment you build a standalone app, it switches to your credentials. If those aren't set up correctly, it fails silently; No error, No log, Just nothing. I had even uploaded FCM credentials to EAS before, but I selected FCM Legacy in the CLI menu instead of FCM V1. EAS accepted it without complaint. Google rejected every notification on the other end without a word. The actual fix, for anyone hitting the same wall: - Go to Firebase Console → Project Settings → Service Accounts → Generate new private key. This gives you the FCM V1 Service Account JSON. - Upload it to EAS under FCM V1. - For iOS, generate an APNs .p8 key from Apple Developer Portal and upload that to EAS too. - Add expo-notifications as a plugin in app.json. - Make sure setNotificationHandler is at the top level of your notification file, outside every function. - Do a full EAS build. npx expo start does not apply credential or plugin changes. - Test with the Expo Push Notifications tool at expo.dev/notifications before touching your backend. After all that notifications for foreground, background, app killed, would work seamlessly. The real lesson here is simple. When you're stuck, the instinct is to search for someone who had the same problem. That makes sense, but community answers age badly, especially in fast-moving mobile app development ecosystems like Expo and Firebase . The official documentation is maintained by the people who built the thing, it reflects breaking changes, deprecations. Although, it's not always the easiest read, but it's the most accurate one. GitHub, Stack Overflow, and YouTube got me close but the Expo docs got me there.

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Thirteen years ago, I was tinkering with my first Android app—never imagining it would one day lead me to building systems that power telecom, finance, agriculture, and e-commerce across Kenya. Along the way, I’ve learned that technology is never just about code. It’s about solving problems that matter—like making it easier for farmers to reach markets, helping customers get connected faster, or ensuring payments flow securely at scale. I started out focused purely on Android, but curiosity (and necessity!) pushed me deeper: backend systems, microservices, cloud infrastructure, and project leadership. Today, I see myself not just as an Android engineer, but as a software engineer who bridges mobile and backend to deliver complete solutions. The most rewarding part? Seeing real impact—like boosting customer acquisition by 120% for a telecom app, or giving small wholesalers in rural Kenya a digital platform to grow their businesses. As I continue this journey, I’m excited about what’s next: building scalable, human-centered systems that make life a little simpler—and a little better. What’s one piece of technology you’ve seen recently that truly made life easier?

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Subject: African Developers: Avoid This Global Application Mistake Many talented African software engineers miss out on lucrative remote roles in the US and UK because they fall into a common trap. They focus solely on showcasing their coding skills, assuming that's the primary requirement. But here's the insight: US/UK clients prioritize something else. They're looking for trust and clear communication. Can you reliably deliver? Can you explain your work? Can you work independently and keep them updated? This is how you can show them you have what they need, even today: * Build a Strong Online Presence: Maintain an up-to-date LinkedIn profile. Share your projects and learnings. * Document Everything: For personal projects or contributions, write clear READMEs. Explain your thought process. * Practice Communication: Join communities, ask thoughtful questions, and provide concise answers. Show you can articulate technical concepts. * Highlight Soft Skills: In your applications and interviews, talk about your problem-solving approach and how you collaborate. Focus on demonstrating reliability and strong communication, and you'll stand out. #RemoteWork #TechCareer #SoftwareEngineering

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In Kenya, mobile money isn’t just a convenience; it’s the heartbeat of everyday commerce. But making QR-based payments truly seamless isn’t as simple as scanning a code. Behind the scenes, it requires: - Verifying merchants, - Handling errors gracefully, - Logging every step for accountability, - And most importantly, building trust in the payment flow. Why does this matter? - Prevents ghost/invalid transactions by verifying merchants in Firestore. - Ensures consistent logging for every step → easier debugging + transparency. - Captures failed payments too → giving merchants complete analytics. - Improves customer experience with clean error messages + real-time updates That’s exactly what I set out to solve with my QR payment system, and I’ll be sharing my journey of building it step by step. 🚀 #Fintech #DigitalPayments

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Tip for devs in high-growth regions like Nigeria: When scaling Node.js backends for Flutter apps, leverage PM2 for process management—it's a game-changer for handling traffic spikes during peak hours (hello, Lagos rush!). Paired with Flutter's hot reload, it speeds up iteration without downtime. Drawing from my experience with payment integrations (Stripe/Paystack), this setup has helped me deploy apps that handle thousands of users seamlessly. Open to collaborating on USD gigs or full-time remote roles—DM me! What's your favorite Node.js tool? Let's discuss. #Flutter #NodeJS #TechTips #AfricanTech #RemoteDeveloper"

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Spent part of my weekend attending an online workshop hosted through the Kenya Data Platform User Group Meetup community, and I genuinely learned a lot from it. The session focused on building a production-ready Employee Management REST API using NestJS, PostgreSQL, Docker, Drizzle ORM, and Zod. Although much of the workshop involved walking through an already-built codebase, it was still incredibly valuable because the explanations focused on why things were structured a certain way, not just writing code. Some of the things I learned/reinforced include: • Structuring a production-ready NestJS application • Using Zod for runtime validation instead of class-validator • Setting up multi-environment configurations with .env.${NODE_ENV} • Managing PostgreSQL with Docker Compose • Using Drizzle ORM with a schema-first approach • Implementing pagination, sorting, and filtering properly • Translating database errors into meaningful HTTP responses • Writing reusable seed scripts and testing APIs using the VS Code REST Client One thing I especially appreciated was seeing how different pieces of a backend system come together in a realistic setup instead of isolated tutorials. Big thanks to the Kevin Gatimu from the Kenya Data Platform User Group for sharing the repo and walking through the architecture in detail. Looking forward to applying some of these ideas in future NestJS projects. The resources to this session are: youtube: https://lnkd.in/dKRjXGGv Github: https://lnkd.in/dYpPY8My #Nestjs #Nodejs #BackendEngineering

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On another episode of learning with ChipMango OAU today, I learnt the concept of product engineering. The following were what I was able to understand. The first thing I learnt is the collaboration of the product engineer with the designing, manufacturing, and testing teams. They collaborate with the quality assurance team to validate the quality of their products. Another is the product validation and optimization where engineers ensure products meet performance and cost goals through simulations, stress tests, and durability validation We also have troubleshooting and root cause analysis where engineers find errors and the cause of these errors to tackle it. So to be a product engineer, one must have the above values or they will flop.

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Testing the Nairobi Expressway: An Edge Case Through a QA Lens Today, I intentionally tested an edge-case scenario on the Nairobi Expressway—not as a developer, but as a QA thinking like a real user. The persona: A commuter in a hurry. At the entry point, I chose to take a receipt, even though I was using the MTC/ETC lane. This choice was deliberate. As a tester, I wanted to see how the system would behave later if I decided to switch fully to automation. I proceeded normally on the expressway. On exit, I chose the ETC lane, with a balance that was more than sufficient to cover the toll. From both a user and QA perspective, my expectation was straightforward: Even though I had taken a receipt at entry, the system already knew my vehicle and my ETC account. With enough balance available, the ETC should automatically charge me and allow me to exit. In that scenario, the receipt should simply become redundant—not a blocker. That’s not what happened. Instead, I was required to reverse and use the MTC lane, where the receipt had to be processed manually. Outcome: The system behaved as designed. Experience: My expectations were not met. This raised a critical question: Why can’t the ETC automatically charge at exit when there is sufficient balance, even if a receipt was issued at entry? Why does taking a receipt lock the user into MTC and prevent ETC from completing the journey? From a QA perspective, this reveals a rigid flow design. The system enforces a strict path rather than adapting to real-world user behavior. A user in a hurry doesn’t think in terms of “receipt flow vs. ETC flow”—they expect the system to optimize for speed and convenience. From a developer’s perspective, I can imagine valid reasons: transaction consistency, reconciliation rules, fraud prevention, or legacy system limitations. However, these internal constraints surface directly in the user experience, creating friction at the exit point—the most time-sensitive moment. Key insight: A test can pass and still expose a usability problem. Edge cases like this highlight where systems prioritize control over flexibility. As QA professionals, our role isn’t just to confirm that the system works—it’s to challenge whether it works for the user. And in automated systems like the expressway, true success is when the system adapts to user intent, not when the user is forced to adapt to the system.

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"Why another payment app? And how on earth do you plan to beat M-Pesa?" I get asked these two questions constantly. The truth? We aren't trying to "beat" M-Pesa at moving money. They won that game decades ago. But moving money is now the easy part. The hard part, the part that’s still broken, is making sure that money leaves a trail that actually helps you grow. Building VycePay has been a lesson in grit. We’re not just coding an app; we’re formalizing an entire economy through @usernames and trust-based data. Stop thinking about payments. Start thinking about "Interoperable Identity." In 2026, the "all-in-one" wallet is the baseline. The real winners in Fintech will be the ones who solve for Credit Gaps that traditional mobile money doesn't touch. Here is how VycePay goes beyond the transaction: ✅ Data over Collateral: M-Pesa shows you spent money; VyceScore shows you are creditworthy. We use transaction velocity to build a verifiable financial passport. ✅ Frictionless P2P: We’ve moved past phone numbers. Global @usernames mean your identity isn't tied to a local SIM card. ✅ Interoperability: Your financial identity should work wherever you go; across borders and platforms. The future of finance isn't just digital; it's personal. Hope you all had a productive weekend. Happy building, and here’s to a massive week ahead! 🚀 #VycePay #Fintech #FinancialIdentity #Innovation #AfricaRising

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Through my programing and becoming a prophesional Software Enginer it exiting that i have discover am new technology that enhances development and also user experience on the product you bring to life as i pour my hear into my creation. Vue.Js 🚀 Why I’m Choosing Vue.js for Modern Web Applications Vue.js is built around one powerful idea: simplicity without sacrificing scalability. It gives you: ✔ Reactive data binding powered by a virtual DOM ✔ Component-based architecture for clean, reusable UI ✔ A progressive structure — use it for a small widget or a full SPA ✔ Clear separation of concerns ✔ Strong ecosystem support (Vue Router for navigation, Pinia for state management, Nuxt for SSR) What makes Vue powerful is not just the syntax — it’s the philosophy. It’s approachable for beginners, yet structured enough for enterprise-level applications. You can incrementally adopt it inside an existing project or build a full-scale modern frontend from scratch. How to get started with Vue.js: 1️⃣ Install via Vite (recommended modern setup) 2️⃣ Understand the Composition API and reactivity system 3️⃣ Learn component structure (props, emits, slots) 4️⃣ Add Vue Router for navigation 5️⃣ Use Pinia for scalable state management Within days, you can move from static pages to fully reactive, dynamic applications. Vue is not about hype. It’s about clean architecture, maintainability, and developer experience. That’s why I choose it for modern web development. #VueJS #FrontendArchitecture #WebDevelopment #JavaScript #SoftwareEngineering #Developers

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I was debugging a production server recently. A live ERP system, one we built at [ADM TECH HUB] to manage procurement for an enterprise client, had stopped renewing its SSL certificate. Over 1,000 business transactions were sitting on a system with a quiet expiry countdown ticking in the background. I opened the logs. Let's Encrypt was sending a verification challenge to the server. The server was returning 404. Every single time. I traced it back to one block in the nginx config. A reverse proxy rule was silently swallowing every incoming request, including the SSL verification, and forwarding it to Django. Django had no idea what to do with it. The fix? Four characters. ^~ nginx location ^~ /.well-known { allow all; root /www/wwwroot/yoursite.com; } That tiny modifier tells nginx: this rule wins. No arguments. No forwarding. Certificate renewed. System secured. Crisis closed. The biggest lessons are often hiding behind the smallest details. This is me finally showing up consistently. I'll be sharing real engineering lessons from the things I build and debug every week. Follow along if that's useful to you. — Senior Engineer, ADM Tech Hub #Django #Nginx #SSL #BackendEngineering #Python #DevOps

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I am stirred to share that my AWS Cloud Computing journey with alx_africa officially kicked off a week ago! ☁️ Today's key takeaway was understanding the AWS Pricing Model, which is essential for building cost-effective solutions in the cloud. The three fundamental drivers of AWS costs: 1️⃣ Compute — Charged per hour or second, depending on the instance type you choose. 2️⃣ Storage — Typically charged per GB based on the storage type and size. 3️⃣ Data Transfer — outbound data transfer is aggregated and charged, while inbound Data Transfer is generally free (with a few exceptions). Data transfers are also billed per GB. Understanding this early helps in designing scalable and cost-efficient architectures. #AWS #CloudComputing #CostOptimization #ALXAfrica #ALXGhana

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As AI and automation continue to reshape tech careers, what skill will ALWAYS remain relevant? Two seasoned tech leaders Richard Boyewa, Engineering Manager at Deed and Ezekiel Udoh, Software Quality Engineering Lead both share the timeless skill every engineer should never stop honing. Their answers? Practical. Evergreen. Game-changing. Would you agree? Drop your thoughts in the comments! #TechCareers #Mentorship #LadderTechPlatform #AI #Engineering #SoftwareEngineering #MentorshipMatters #TechCommunity #LadderTech

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If you are in tech or you made a decision to learn any skill whatsoever in tech in 2025, LEARN and DONT JOKE with these 3 things as we start 2026.

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Default vs Design Many times, I come across young software developers making waves and building exciting products, and I ask myself: what was I doing when I was at that age? When I think about it, the truth is, I was stuck reading and studying for JAMB and WAEC. Those exams jammed me for 5 good years. Do you know what you can achieve in 5 years? A whole lot. After that, I finally entered UNI and spent another ~5 years chasing a certificate that I’m currently not using—and worse, I didn’t even get the knowledge I expected. That was me living life on default. And by default, I mean following what the community or convention dictates. This is the story of millions of Nigerians. But thankfully, I’m beginning to see a new wave: teenagers already doing big things. Living on default is a reactive way of life you’re simply handed things, and you have little or no say. On the other hand, living life by design means careful planning, consistent implementation, and conscious refining. It means you’re not just busy for the sake of being busy, you’re busy with purpose. I listened to Adeshina recently, and he asked a powerful question: “You’re waiting for the next iPhone, waiting for the next Anendlessocean song, waiting for the next release from House of David movies… but what are people waiting for you for? What are you cooking? What are you building?” That’s the difference. When you live on default, you’ll eventually ask yourself: “Where did all this time go?” But when you live by design, your time tells a story, you’re building, creating, and leaving a mark.

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Why Web Development Is the Fastest Way to Enter Tech in Kenya (And the Project I Started Today) Yesterday I started documenting my journey into software development in Kenya. Today I made an important decision: I’m focusing on web development as my entry into tech. Here’s why. Many beginners believe they must learn advanced fields immediately — AI, cybersecurity, or complex backend systems. But looking at the Kenyan market, a clear pattern appears: Businesses don’t first need complex technology. They need digital presence and practical systems. Across Kenya, thousands of businesses still rely on: - WhatsApp orders - Manual record keeping - Paper bookings - Offline customer management This creates a massive opportunity for beginner developers. Web development sits exactly where business meets technology. If you can build: ✅ a business website ✅ a booking system ✅ an expense tracker ✅ a simple dashboard —you are already solving real problems. Instead of waiting until I feel “ready,” I started building my first project today: A Student Expense Tracker (KES-based). Why this project? Because it solves a real problem many students face — tracking daily spending. The goal is simple: Add expenses Categorize spending See total money used Nothing complex. Just real learning through building. One lesson I’m already learning: Progress in tech doesn’t come from watching tutorials. It comes from shipping small things consistently. #WebDevelopment #KenyaTech #SoftwareDevelopment #BuildInPublic #JavaScriptJourney

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