The hum of my neighbor’s generator just got a little more expensive. I was sitting here in Akure, trying to figure out why a simple API call was timing out, when I saw the news about oil prices hitting their highest point since 2022. For most people, that’s a "market trend." For me, that’s an immediate spike in my burn rate.

Whether you’re running a small dev shop or a VC-backed startup, the "tech stack" in Nigeria includes the price of diesel and the stability of the grid. When those costs jump, your runway doesn't just shorten—it evaporates.

The War on My Burn Rate

I saw a report about the Pentagon underestimating the cost of the Iran war by billions because they didn't factor in "rebuilding" costs. Honestly, I felt that in my soul. It’s exactly what happens when we scope out a new feature. We look at the "build" but we completely ignore the "rebuild"— the technical debt, the maintenance, and the hidden infrastructure costs that creep up after you launch.

Building software is never just about the code you write today. It's about the cost of keeping the lights on tomorrow. If the price of everything from server costs to the fuel in your tank is climbing, you have to be ruthless about what you build. No more "nice-to-have" features. We are in a "No gree for anybody" season where every line of code needs to justify its existence on the balance sheet.

Platform Risk is Real

The headlines out of the US about the Supreme Court and voting districts caught my eye for one specific reason: platform stability. When the "rules" of the system you live in can be redrawn overnight, it’s the ultimate form of platform risk.

As developers, we usually worry about Google or Apple changing their store policies. But for those of us building in Nigeria, the platform is the regulatory environment. One day you’re building a fintech app on a specific license, the next day the "redistricting" happens in the form of a new circular from the central bank. It breaks your product just as surely as a breaking change in a major library. You have to build with the assumption that the ground will move.

Debugging the Cost of Living

I spent some time in Jos recently, where the cold mornings usually make for great deep-work sessions. But even there, the conversation isn't about the latest JavaScript framework; it’s about "Sapa" and how to survive the rising costs.

When your team is worried about their commute or their electricity bill, their focus isn't on the UX of your checkout flow. It’s on survival. As a founder, I’ve realized that my job isn't just to manage GitHub repos—it’s to manage the environment so my team can actually think.

Shipping Through the Noise

We can't wait for the markets to settle or for the "rules" to stop changing. If I waited for a stable environment to ship, I’d never push a single commit.

The goal is to build leaner. Use better caching to save on server costs. Optimize those heavy queries so your database doesn't eat your margin. If the "infrastructure" of the country is expensive and unpredictable, your software needs to be the opposite: cheap to run and incredibly resilient.

I’m heading back to my terminal now. I have a deployment to finish before the next fuel price hike makes me rethink my entire server architecture. Stay building, stay hungry, and don't let the noise kill your focus.