Dean UkanahAbuja, Nigeria

I find real-world problems, then build the software to fix them.

Co-founder and Head of Product and Engineering at Shelta, verified off-campus housing for students. I own product and engineering end to end, and I am a final-year Cybersecurity student at FUTMinna.

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Dean working at the desk

Right now

Where things stand in October 2026.

Building

Shelta, live at FUTMinna and Minna. The mobile app has passed closed testing and is in Google Play production review.

Next

Tracking every apartment by lodge, with address and flat number, so landlords and agents run their day on Shelta.

Studying

BTech Cyber Security Science, Federal University of Technology Minna, 2027.

Exploring

AIZEN, an idea for vulnerability analysis software, with no code yet. Solana and Rust through small experiments, to learn unfamiliar technology.

Things I've built

Some are live, some are half-finished. Both count.

Shelta Hero Section

Shelta

Verified off-campus housing for students, so finding a room near campus does not mean trusting a stranger.

Students get scammed looking for accommodation off campus. Shelta lists verified rooms and backs them with agent verification, inspections and key handover, on web and mobile. It launched in November 2025, slowed on funding, and picked back up in May 2026. A team of four, bootstrapped from personal and family funds.

227
Registered usersas of 15 Oct 2026
1,051
Community membersas of 15 Oct 2026
100+
Listingsas of 15 Oct 2026
ProductNext.jsExpoNestJSPrismaPostgreSQLClerkRedisBullMQPaystackGoogle Cloud Storage
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AIZEN

Reads a codebase, then proves the vulnerability in a sandbox before reporting it.

My capstone. The first version pattern-matched source text and found nothing real. Parsing the AST and verifying exploits in Docker is what made the output worth reading.

ProductPythonTree-sitterLangGraphDockerRAG
Capstone
Karrigo Hero Section

Karrigo

Food and groceries delivery for Makurdi, with customer and partner apps behind one API.

A delivery platform for food and groceries in Makurdi. I built the backend and both mobile apps: the customer app, and the partner app that kitchens, stores and riders use.

Client workExpoReact NativeNestJSPrismaPostgreSQLRedisPaystack
PriceIt Hero Section

PriceIt

A crowdsourced price index for Nigerian shoppers, built from photos of receipts and shelf tags.

Users photograph a receipt or shelf tag, Gemini Vision reads the price, and a trust-weighted consensus engine turns submissions into a verified price. It began as a scraper of Jumia, Konga and Jiji; I dropped that on 27 August 2026 over legal risk and no real moat, and rebuilt it around crowdsourced data. Paused.

ProductExpoClerkFastAPIPostgreSQLGemini Vision
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Fola

Takes a payment inside the WhatsApp chat a merchant already sells in.

Built in a weekend for the DevCareer × Nomba hackathon. The lesson was that the app was never the product — the chat was.

ProductNode.jsExpressPaystackRedis
Hackathon
Crystalizer Hero Section

Crystalizer Fertilizer

A fertilizer producer's whole catalogue, blog and gallery, built to be found.

Client work, and the project that taught me how much of shipping is content modelling rather than code.

Client workNext.jsTailwind CSSHeadless CMSGraphQL
Read the full write-ups

Commits

Pulled live from GitHub — a rolling year, not a highlight reel.

What I reach for

Grouped by how often I actually open it.

Every day

TypeScript, React, Next.js, NestJS, PostgreSQL, Tailwind CSS

Often

React Native, Expo, Prisma, Redis, BullMQ, Docker

When it fits

Python, Gemini, RAG, Paystack, Clerk, Go

Exploring

Rust, Anchor, Solana

AI in the loop

Claude, Claude Code, Gemini, RAG, LangGraph

At Clique, a learning management system for K–12 schools, I implemented requirements. At Provarex, Jejelove Solutions and Stanrute Technologies, I also helped shape scope and priorities.

Jul 2024 – Jan 2026CliqueMid-level Full-Stack EngineerTypeScript · React · NestJS · PostgreSQL
May 2024 – Aug 2024Provarex InnovationsEngineering LeadReact · Next.js · Tailwind CSS
Mar 2023 – Jul 2023Jejelove SolutionsFull-Stack Engineer, remoteReact · Next.js · Tailwind CSS
Nov 2022 – Feb 2023Stanrute TechnologiesBackend Engineer, remoteNode.js · Express · NestJS · MongoDB

AI in the loop

Ordered by how often it is actually open, not by how impressive it sounds.

I write software with a model open next to me most of the day. Not as a novelty — as the tool I reach for between having an idea and having something running. It changed how much I attempt alone.

Claude

Thinking out loud. Architecture I am unsure about, code review on my own work, and the honest second opinion I would otherwise wait a day for.

Every day

Claude Code

Where most of the actual building happens now — refactors across files, tests I would have skipped, and the boring plumbing that used to eat my evenings.

Every day

Antigravity

Occasionally, when I want a different agent's take on the same problem.

Sometimes

Cursor

Rarely. It is good; I just settled somewhere else.

Rarely

The security work cuts the other way: AIZEN exists because a model will happily write you something that runs and is quietly exploitable.

Working on a problem worth solving, or need a product engineer on contract? I'd like to hear from you.

Open to remote contract product-engineering work, Abuja also fine, and to a cybersecurity internship.

Investors: I'm happy to talk about Shelta.

Message me on WhatsAppukanah15thdean@gmail.comRésumé, if you need it

Dean Ukanah · Abuja, Nigeria