Gift Balogun
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SOFTWARE ENGINEER · BACKEND · SYSTEMS

I build the systems behind ambitious products.

I'm Gift Balogun, a software engineer focused on backend architecture, APIs, infrastructure, automation and full-stack product development. I turn complex business requirements into reliable software that can be deployed, operated and scaled.

View selected work Let’s work together

Based in Rivers State, Nigeria · Founder, Royal Bcode Ventures (opens in a new tab)

The shape of the systems Gift builds Clients to API; API to Application; Application to Workers; Application to Alerts; Application to Data; Workers to Payment rails; Workers to Messaging Clients web · mobile API REST · JWT · OAuth Application Laravel · NestJS Workers queues · jobs · cron Alerts Telegram · SmartAlert-T Data PostgreSQL · MySQL · Redis Payment rails Kuda · ALATPay · SafeHaven Messaging WhatsApp · Instagram The shape of the systems Gift builds Clients to API; API to Application; Application to Workers; Application to Alerts; Application to Data; Workers to Payment rails; Workers to Messaging Clients web · mobile API REST · JWT · OAuth Application Laravel · NestJS Workers queues · jobs · cron Alerts Telegram · SmartAlert-T Data PostgreSQL · MySQL · Redis Payment rails Kuda · ALATPay · SafeHaven Messaging WhatsApp · Instagram
The shape of what I build. Every integration named here comes from my own work.

Where I work

  • BACKEND Laravel, Node.js and Python services with queues, jobs and scheduling
  • APIs REST and GraphQL for web and mobile clients, JWT, OAuth, RBAC
  • SAAS ReplyPilot: one API behind a web dashboard and a mobile app
  • INTEGRATIONS Kuda, ALATPay and SafeHaven payment rails; WhatsApp and Instagram
  • INFRASTRUCTURE Linux servers, Docker, Kubernetes, Proxmox
  • AUTOMATION Report pipelines that scrape, build and send themselves; Telegram alerting
  • DEVOPS Containerised deploys, GitHub Actions and GitLab CI
  • FULL STACK Laravel platforms with Flutter apps: RBV Food, Afia9ja

Selected Work

A selection of products, systems and engineering work I’ve built.

ReplyPilot architecture Web dashboard to API; Mobile app to API; API to AI layer; API to WhatsApp; API to Instagram Web dashboard Next.js Mobile app Flutter API NestJS AI layer reply generation WhatsApp Meta platform Instagram Meta platform

ReplyPilot

AI customer support for businesses on WhatsApp and Instagram.

  • AI
  • SaaS
  • Automation
  • Meta APIs
Role
Lead developer & designer
Category
SaaS product
Company
Royal Bcode Ventures
Status
Active

Technology: NestJS Next.js Flutter

View case study
RBV Food architecture Customer apps to Platform; Web ordering to Platform; Restaurants to Platform; Platform to Wallet funding; Platform to Notifications; Platform to Couriers Customer apps iOS · Android Web ordering browser Restaurants onboarding Platform Laravel Wallet funding card · USSD · transfer Notifications order updates Couriers door delivery

RBV Food

Food delivery platform: order from nearby restaurants on mobile or the web and have it brought to your door.

  • Delivery
  • Marketplace
  • Payments
  • Mobile
Role
Lead & primary developer
Category
Product · Food delivery
Company
Royal Bcode Ventures
Status
Live

Technology: Laravel PHP Flutter Dart

View case study View live (opens in a new tab)
Afia9ja architecture Web store to Platform; Mobile apps to Platform; Seller panel to Platform; Platform to Catalogue; Platform to Orders; Platform to Promotions Web store shoppers Mobile apps Flutter Seller panel vendors Platform Laravel Catalogue categories · brands Orders cart · tracking Promotions coupons · affiliates

Afia9ja

Multi-vendor marketplace for goods made in Nigeria, on the web, iOS and Android.

  • Marketplace
  • Multi-vendor
  • E-commerce
  • Mobile
Role
Lead & primary developer
Category
Product · E-commerce
Status
Live

Technology: Laravel PHP Flutter Dart

View case study View live (opens in a new tab)
Laravel ALATPay SDK architecture Laravel app to ALATPay SDK; ALATPay SDK to Bank transfer; ALATPay SDK to USSD; ALATPay SDK to Account debit; ALATPay SDK to Static wallets Laravel app your code ALATPay SDK laravel-alatpay Bank transfer virtual accounts USSD pay with phone Account debit direct debit Static wallets ALATPay API

Laravel ALATPay SDK

Open-source Laravel SDK for ALATPay, the payment service from Wema Bank.

  • Payments
  • Laravel
  • SDK
  • Open source
Role
Lead developer
Category
Open source · Fintech
Company
Royal Bcode Ventures
Status
Published on Packagist

Technology: PHP Laravel

View case study View on Packagist (opens in a new tab)
Kuda Open API toolkit architecture Laravel to Service controllers; Node.js to Service controllers; Flutter to Service controllers; Service controllers to Kuda Open API Laravel kudaapitoken Node.js kudaopenapi_node Flutter kudaopenapi_flutter Service controllers Bill · Card · GiftCard Kuda Open API Kuda Bank

Kuda Open API toolkit

Client libraries for Kuda Bank’s Open API in Laravel, Node.js and Flutter.

  • Banking APIs
  • Laravel
  • Node.js
  • Flutter
Role
Author
Category
Open source · Fintech
Status
Published on Packagist

Technology: PHP Laravel JavaScript Dart Flutter

View case study View on Packagist (opens in a new tab)

More work

All work Everything on GitHub (opens in a new tab)

Engineering Lab

Things I’m building, testing, learning and breaking.

Experience

Backend roles across fintech and product companies, built on a grounding in networks and servers.

  1. Ongoing

    Founder · Software Engineer at Royal Bcode Ventures

    • Lead and primary developer of RBV Food, a food delivery platform, and Afia9ja, a multi-vendor marketplace — both Laravel back ends with Flutter apps.
    • Lead developer and designer of ReplyPilot, an AI customer-support SaaS for WhatsApp and Instagram.
    • Lead developer of NetWOL, a Wake-on-LAN utility built in Flutter.
    • Lead developer of the open-source Laravel ALATPay SDK.
    • Laravel
    • Flutter
    • NestJS
    • Next.js

  2. Aug 2024 – Aug 2025

    Backend Engineer at CarbonTech Limited

    • Designed and maintained REST endpoints consumed by web and mobile applications.
    • Shipped full-stack features with a Next.js front end on a Laravel back end.
    • Wrote PHPUnit tests for API endpoints to catch regressions before production.
    • Reworked database schemas and complex SQL, and added Redis caching on hot read paths.
    • Hardened authentication and validation, and ran regular security reviews.
    • Packaged services in Docker for matching development and production environments.
    • Laravel
    • PHP
    • Next.js
    • Redis
    • MySQL
    • Docker
    • PHPUnit

  3. May 2024 – Sep 2024

    Backend Engineer at Credbevy

    • Built and maintained REST APIs for web and mobile clients.
    • Tuned schemas and queries and enforced data integrity across applications.
    • Strengthened authentication and authorisation; wrote unit tests and fixed production issues.
    • Laravel
    • PHP
    • MySQL
    • PHPUnit

  4. Nov 2023 – Mar 2024

    Senior Backend Engineer at Payzita

    • Designed and maintained server-side applications and their databases.
    • Profiled and optimised backend processes to cut latency and improve stability.
    • Defined API contracts with the frontend team for clean integration.
    • Applied security and data-protection practices across the development lifecycle.
    • Laravel
    • PHP
    • MySQL
    • REST

  5. Apr 2023 – Sep 2023

    Intern, ISOE Tools & Automation at Huawei Technologies Nigeria

    • Automated report creation and delivery end to end using web scraping.
    • Built a network dashboard that summarises data from the customer database, and sped up an existing one.
    • Analysed network technologies by performance and uptime; ran monthly security checks.
Earlier roles and internships 4

  1. May 2021 – Oct 2021

    Intern, Network Technology Department at Huawei Technologies Nigeria

    Integrated new services into customer networks and helped install and maintain network equipment.

  2. Apr 2019 – Apr 2020

    Web Developer (Full Stack) at The Yoma Brand

    Built client websites in PHP (Laravel) and JavaScript, and managed hosting and domains.

  3. Jan 2019 – Apr 2019

    Intern at Covenant University, CSIS

    Prepared servers for uplink and set up infrastructure for electronic examinations.

  4. Jul 2018 – Aug 2018

    Intern at NIIT Port Harcourt

    Configured servers for day-to-day use and for examinations.

Download CV (PDF)

Engineering stack

What I reach for, grouped by where it sits in a system.

Backend
  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Python
  • Django
  • Flask
  • FastAPI
  • Node.js
  • NestJS
  • TypeScript
Frontend & mobile
  • Flutter
  • Dart
  • JavaScript
  • React
  • Next.js
  • Vue.js
  • HTML
  • CSS
Data
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • MongoDB
  • Redis
  • Firebase
Infrastructure
  • Linux
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Proxmox
  • Apache
  • GitHub Actions
  • GitLab CI
Cloud
  • AWS (EC2, S3, RDS)
  • DigitalOcean
  • Azure
  • GCP
Integration
  • REST
  • GraphQL
  • Webhooks
  • Payment APIs
  • OAuth
  • JWT
  • RBAC
Laravel depth
  • Queues & jobs
  • Task scheduling
  • Event broadcasting
  • Multi-tenancy
  • PHPUnit

From the Engineering Desk

Notes on APIs, webhooks, production engineering and the hardware on my desk.

All posts on the blog (opens in a new tab)

Gift Balogun seated on a park bench, wearing a grey waistcoat over a light blue shirt.

About

I trained as a telecommunications engineer, and I still think about software the way that discipline taught me: as signals moving through a system that has to keep working when parts of it don’t.

My first roles were internships close to the metal — preparing servers for uplink and for university e-exams — before I moved into web development in 2019. Since then my work has settled on the backend: designing APIs, shaping databases, wiring in payment providers, and writing the tests that let a team ship with confidence.

I work mostly in Laravel and Node.js, with Python where it fits, and I like owning a feature end to end, from schema to deployment. I also run Royal Bcode Ventures, publish open-source SDKs for Nigerian banking APIs, and keep a home lab where Proxmox, microcontrollers and networking tools get tested before they get trusted.

Education
B.Eng. Telecommunication Engineering, Bells University of Technology, Ota (2024)
Coursework
Cisco CCNA: Introduction to Networks; Cisco CCNA: Switching, Routing and Wireless Essentials; Supervised Machine Learning: Regression and Classification
Writing
Technical articles on the blog and CoderLegion

Currently

What has my attention right now.

Updated September 2026

Building
ReplyPilot — AI support for WhatsApp and Instagram — at Royal Bcode Ventures.
Open source
Payment SDKs for Nigerian banking APIs: ALATPay and Kuda.
Writing
About production engineering, webhooks and fintech on the blog and CoderLegion.
Open to
Remote backend roles and technically serious collaborations.

Have a system worth building?

I’m interested in software products, backend systems, infrastructure, automation and technically challenging projects.

Start a conversation (opens in a new tab) Email me
Based in
Rivers State, Nigeria
Elsewhere
GitHub, LinkedIn, Blog