Innovation: High school student creates platform that boosts construction industry

Addis Abeba – Betselot Bekele, a 12th-grade student created a platform that could accelerate connectivity within the construction industry.  She created a bot on Telegram, called “Meet-Up,” with the aim of connecting (on-site) contractors and interested customers. 

Betselot remarked that she created the bot to address the two-sided needs within the industry. She added that contractors, especially unemployed young graduates, mainly due to their lack of networking and customers, whose needs vary but usually go to individuals they are already familiarized with. She argued that ‘there lies a pool of competent [young] people with the skills who can also do the job’, and as such, the platform is meant to bridge the gaps between the two interdependent entities. 

According to her, the platform was designed to alleviate problems arising out of distance, such that people with sites in different cities can use the bot to connect with contractors in those same cities to work on their construction, without necessarily having to be present on site. Customers can also use an ‘update status’ feature on the bot to conduct follow-ups on their projects, she added. AS