Innovation SL- Freetown Pitch Night, for the second year organized the Orange Social Venture Prize Sierra Leone.

What is the OSVP?

The Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and Middle-East aims at promoting Social Innovation for development, thanks to information and communication technologies. Having become a benchmark contest, the Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and the Middle East (POESAM) rewards the best technological projects with a positive impact in Africa and the Middle East.  The competition is organised in two stages: first a national competition in 17 countries; then an international jury chooses the Grand Prix winners.

OSVP Sierra Leone

OSVP Sierra Leone is part of Orange’s  Innovation Strategy and its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy,  organised in partnership with Innovation SL- Freetown Pitch Night. The competition is open to both Males and Females, aged 21 years and above, whose business ideas or businesses have existed for less than three years, and propose technological solutions with a  positive impact in essential fields such as education, healthcare, agriculture, mobile payment or sustainable development, to improve the living conditions of women (women’s independence, creating or maintaining jobs, data collection on gender, digital inclusion and financial inclusion, etc.).  This year’s competition is the OSVP 2nd edition held in Sierra Leone, since 2019.

Innovation SL /GEN SL/Freetown Pitch Night: Implementing Partner

The Freetown Pitch Night is the most successful gathering of entrepreneurs, a crucial and perhaps the most significant part of the Networking assets of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sierra Leone. The Freetown Pitch Night provides budding entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone the opportunity to pitch their ideas or post revenue business. At Pitch Night entrepreneurs provide a holistic view of their business to a vibrant Sierra Leonean entrepreneur community, allowing them to market their business, and solicit feedback, advice and potential partnerships. 

Freetown Pitch Night is run by Innovation SL, an Entrepreneurship Support Organisation (ESO) and an Innovation & Technology Management company that engages in the following;

• Developing digital and technology solutions; contributing to a digital infrastructure to enable the development and growth of digital entrepreneurs.
• Own Co working space, Incubator and Accelerator (Innovations Axis)
• Freetown Pitch Night – a monthly pitch event;
• Implementation partners for Global Entrepreneurship Network – GEN Sierra Leone. Running several programs- Start Up Huddle, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Future Agro Challenge, Creative Business Cup, Entrepreneurship World Cup
• A service provider focusing on technology transfer; business development services; enhancing the role of Innovation in the public sector; and entrepreneurship development through donor funding.
• Providing contextual intelligence and insight to SMEs/others in Sierra Leone to enable innovation and growth.
• dialoguing and engaging for and on entrepreneurship development with interested stakeholders including government (national and local), development partners and academia.

OSVP Event Details

The 2nd Edition of the OSVP competition was held live on Sierra Leone Broadcasting corporation (SLBC) National TV, and streamed live on Freetown’s PitchNight facebook page,  on the 25th  September, 2020.

Prior to final selection for national pitchers, application screening, assessments and evaluation by different judges was done and five(5)  startups were selected. Another assessment by different judges led to the selection of  the top three  finalists who pitched at the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation( SLBC) National TV.

The top five startups for this years competition;

1. Mark Aiah Fomba

Digital Money Transfer using Automatic Telling Machine-ATM- Local ATM

This machine is a Digital electronic based payment system that allows people to carry out their simple banking operations or transaction in an easy,  safe and secure manner, and without a bank account.  You  simply receive a pin code that enables you to cash out your money with a minimum charge rate.

• Isatu Mozetta Kabbia

Ebocare:Body Wash

Ebocare is a natural homemade body wash that   cleanses and replenishes all skin types.

3. Yusif Erik Lakoh                                                     

KepifriSoap/DetergentManufacturing Enterprise (KeSMen-SL)

KepifriSoap/DetergentManufacturing Enterprise is a Soap processing and manufacturing  company.

• Isata Jalloh 

Stem Garage

 Stem garage is a proposed flagship of projects 1835 which hopes to help  young people access coding and other fourth industrial revolution skill sets in Bo city.

• Bayoh Turay

Salone Agric Markit

Tech builder is an information technology company that is focusing on building an online agricultural platform that gives accessibility to both farmers and buyers to inter-connect worldwide as well as locally.  

OSVP 2020, National competition Judges 

Emeka Okafor

He is the Curator of TED Global in Africa, Co-Founder of the TED Fellows program and Maker Faire Africa, and author of the publicly acclaimed blogs, Timbuktu Chronicles (entrepreneurship, science, and technology in Africa) and Africa Unchained (governance, policy, education, and institutional development in Africa). Okafor recently co-founded KICHIN, a West African food & beverage accelerator aimed at rapidly scaling existing food entrepreneurs with high-growth potential (KICHIN is currently seeking additional investors and partners–message him if you’re interested in talking).

He is a contributing author to the book, Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century (Abrams Books, 2006) and has been featured in numerous interviews, articles and blogs on science & innovation, including the NPR TED Radio Hour (Africa: The Next Chapter, 2012) and most recently in MIT’s Journal of Design & Science (Issue 4: Decentralizing Biotech, October 2018).

Okafor serves on the board of the Gearbox International Foundation and was previously a board member for Samasource. He is a former advisor to the X-Prize Foundation and Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) and was also a Global Poptech Fellow.

Okafor is an entrepreneur and venture strategist. He has advised governments and world leaders on innovation & entrepreneurship systems and policy for Africa, including President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) in 2014 and the U.S. State Department at the White House Maker Faire in 2014, he spoke in the Roosevelt Room to top U.S. officials on the global impact of Africa’s Maker Movement. He has been a speaker, panelist and judge at numerous innovation events around the world, including New Museum’s IDEA City, Maker Faire Mexico City & TEDxEuston, on topics ranging from biosciences to emergent systems to the future of decentralized manufacturing.

Edleen B. Elba

Edleen B. Elba, is a Chartered Global Management Accountant and HR Practitioner with two decades of work experience within various industries across the public and private sectors. She is the Founder and Managing Director of JobSearch. She is also an IFC/LPI trained Trainer and Co-Founder of Institute of Human Resources Sierra Leone.

Memuna Janneh

Memuna Janneh is a BI & Business Systems expert and Sociopreneur, with a client footprint in over a dozen countries in Europe, USA, Middle East and Africa.

Memuna is owner/director of Sierra Leone’s premier catering and dining company, Cassava & Co and its affiliate charity LunchBoxGift (LBG).

With a strong focus on nutrition, childhood literacy and primary school education, LBG serves thousands of free school meals each year, boosting attendance and providing nutrition & sustenance to underprivileged children in Sierra Leone.

It also operates mobile library services and education radio clubs in rural communities. LBG receives no donor support for its primary activities and takes great pride in the fact that it is almost exclusively funded by the operations of Cassava & Co.

This autonomous social enterprise model enables LBG to provide responsive, flexible, purpose-built, needs-driven solutions to its beneficiaries.

For more information: www.eatatcassava.com www.lunchboxgift.com

Abu Kamara

Abu Kamara has over 19 years of entrepreneurship experience.

He is the Co-Founder & President of Grovara, the 1st B2B Global Marketplace for Wellness Brands. Grovara is transforming the way retailers discover brands, gain insights and make purchases for their stores.

Grovara marketplace connects retailers with hundreds natural and organic brands, from product discovery, order processing, to payments and fulfilment, all in a single marketplace

Abu Kamara is Passionate about entrepreneurship as the key driver in development across Africa

He plans to launch an Africa Focused Venture Fund that will be HQ in Sierra Leone, to invest in startups across the continent

Alimatou Mbaye

Alimatou Mbaye is the Marketing and Communication Director at Orange Sierra leone

She came to  Sierra Leone in August 2019 after  a long experience on telecommunication, specially on team coaching and project delivery on time and quality.

Her  reality and dream is to accompany the new generation to achieve their projects with  appropriate tools of monitoring.

OSVP 2020 WINNER

Bayoh Turay who pitched on an online agricultural  platform  called salone agric markit, that  gives access to both farmers and buyers to interconnect emerged the winner of the OSVP 2020 competition .

Bayoh Turay was awarded a Fly box plus Monthly subscription over a period of 1 year (fair usage policy applies), a Certificate of participation, and a  Cash Prize of SLL 20millions.

The 1st runner up, Isata Jalloh  pitched on a project that helps  young people access coding and other fourth industrial revolution skill sets in Bo city. She was awarded a Fly box plus  Monthly subscription over a period of 1 year (fair usage policy applies), a Certificate of participation, and  a Cash Prize of SLL 10millions.

The 2nd runner up Mark Aiah Fomba pitched on a  digital electronic based payment system that allows people to carry out simple banking  transactions without a bank account.  He was awarded a  Fly box plus  Monthly subscription over a period of 1 year (fair usage policy applies), a Certificate of participation and Cash Prize of SLL 5millions.

The fourth and Fifth finalists were given a Wifi plus Monthly subscription over a period of 1 year (fair usage policy applies) and Certificate  of participation  for each.CategoriesCompetition, Ecosystem, OSVP