Binchke International unveils OneDelegate app, targets youth unemployment, insecurity in Adamawa

By Vangawa Bolgent

Binchke International has unveiled a new mobile application, OneDelegate, designed to link trained artisans with residents who need services such as plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, gas supply, and waste disposal, as part of efforts to tackle youth unemployment and reduce the recruitment of idle youths into crime.

The app was unveiled in Yola alongside the organisation’s annual report and a five-year strategic plan at an event attended by the Adamawa State Government, civil society leaders, and representatives of development partners operating in the state.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Director of Binchke International, Dr Elisha Belo, said the initiative was informed by an internal assessment which found that large numbers of trained young people in the state remain jobless despite having employable skills, leaving them vulnerable to recruitment by criminal groups.

He said the assessment linked the absence of decent jobs to the rising involvement of youths in gangs locally known as Shilla boys, as well as in banditry and kidnapping across the state.

“We are linking them with those who need their services in the state, and we plan to scale it up in other states as well,” Dr Belo said.

He said the platform was built as an app, rather than a traditional business model, because young people in the Gen Z and Gen Alpha categories already trust digital platforms and would more readily embrace the service in that format.

‘App to close gap between training and jobs’, says innovation director

Also speaking, the Director of Innovation and Strategy at Binchke International, Jimuruna Leonard, said the organisation identified a persistent gap between skills training programmes and the availability of paying jobs for graduates of such programmes.

He said OneDelegate allows artisans to register after undergoing screening, after which they can receive service requests, be tracked in real time by clients, and be reviewed after each job, while clients themselves are also reviewed by the artisans.

“It’s going to address a lot of unemployment, and there are a lot of NGOs also that are training persons, but there is no way to deploy those skills and generate income. So this goes a long way in addressing unemployment,” Leonard said.

He said the platform was first launched in Yola based on research showing higher demand for such services in metropolitan areas, with plans to extend to other states afterward.

State government backs initiative.

Representing the Adamawa State Government, the Director of the Donor Agency Department at the State Ministry of Planning Commission, Usman Moddibo Saleh, who stood in for the Executive Chairman, said the state government was in full support of the initiative.

He said the project aligned with the government’s core priorities on employment, education, and gender-related development and called on residents of the state to support the platform.

“It will help the people of Adamawa. So we really also call on people of Adamawa to give them maximum support so that we achieve the aim and objectives of them being in Adamawa State,” Saleh said.

Organisers explain gas agent, master artisan models

The Gazette News Nigeria gathered that, responding to questions during an interactive session, officials of Binchke International explained that the platform would run a gas distribution model in partnership with gas companies, under which trained agents who move set volumes of gas would receive discounts in place of standard transport costs.

They said the organisation does not intend to manufacture equipment such as protective gas cylinder racks itself but would hand off such designs to private manufacturing partners to produce and sell, while the platform focuses on linking agents to customers.

On training, officials said organisations already running skills programmes, described as master artisans, could bring trainees to be certified and registered on the app for free, while the inviting organisation covers the logistics of the training itself.

Safety, payment concerns addressed

Responding to questions on safety, Binchke International said every chat on the platform is encrypted and that a customer service line is available for clients to reach in the event that an agent’s phone goes off or cannot be tracked.

On payment, the organisation said OneDelegate operates an escrow-style system, under which clients fund a wallet and release payment only after a job is marked as completed, while an option to pay on arrival is also available for select services.

Officials said the organisation is also working towards fixed, designated pricing for gas purchases on the app to reduce disputes arising from price negotiation during delivery.

Plans for rural access, USSD rollout

On concerns that the platform may favour urban areas, Binchke International said OneDelegate is designed to cover the entire state through GPS tracking of registered agents, regardless of location.

The organisation said it also plans to introduce a USSD code option and a service known as OneDelegate Hop, a call-in system that would relay requests from residents in rural communities without smartphones or reliable internet access to registered agents serving those areas.

IDP representative welcomes initiative.

Speaking during the session, the Executive Director of the Rural Agricultural Transformation and Empowerment Initiative, Chimda Musa, described the unveiling as long overdue, noting that it would benefit internally displaced persons in the state, many of whom remain jobless.

“This is long overdue, and I think these are some of the things that will take out most project participants out of poverty, especially those in the livelihood aspect,” Musa said. “Most of them are jobless. But with this, I think they will be linked, and they will gain their source of livelihood.”

Development partners urged to fund platform sustainability

Some development workers at the event, as reported by The Gazette News Nigeria, called on donor agencies and NGOs to incorporate platforms such as OneDelegate into future project budgets, arguing that this would offer beneficiaries a sustainable route to income beyond one-off distributions and training.

One speaker cited past assessments of humanitarian spending in the region, noting that significant sums had gone into short-term distributions rather than platforms capable of generating long-term income for beneficiaries.

Binchke International said it welcomed such partnerships, including support with training logistics for artisans already certified on the platform.

The organisation said the Yola launch marks the first phase of a rollout it intends to extend across Adamawa State and, eventually, to other parts of Nigeria.

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