Pitchers

May 10, 2023

Fempreneur Pitch Night

In a bid to select participants, Innovation SL posted a CALL for applicants for the Freetown Pitch Night-fempreneur edition; with a star prize of $5,000, seven women were selected for the competition. Two-week prepping sessions were held in order to prepare them. During this time, they were given instructions on how they should showcase their ideas, to aid them with their pitch deck.

On the 26th of April, 2023 the Freetown Pitch Night was held at the Limkokwing University, Hill Station, Freetown with the theme “FEMPRENEUR” (a platform where female entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to pitch their ideas and access seed funding). The event was hosted by Ms. Margret Cassel and Ms.Francess Beresford- Renner.

A keynote address was given by the company’s CEO/MD Mr. Francis Stevens-George who created a sense of purpose; in his speech, he stated the reason why Innovation SL partnered with Mercury International. Relatively, “for entrepreneurs to work we need a pipeline of ideas. To have new ideas to work we should have INVESTORS.” He further added that entrepreneurship has been the bedrock of development in Sierra Leone, for an entrepreneur to work there should be an ecosystem, for an ecosystem to work there should be a pipeline where new ideas as well as older ones strived. He emphasized that for both old and new ideas to strive there is a need for Investors, for that reason, there was a sense to appreciate Mr Martin Michael, the MD of Mercury International, for deciding to collaborate with the Freetown pitch night by providing seed capital, especially for female entrepreneurs. Statistically, Sierra Leone has an estimate of 1.5 million women in the micro or small business sector and this sector accounts for 90% of the country’s economy. However these women have been struggling over the years to up-scale their businesses because they lack funds and this is exactly why the fempreneur edition of Freetown Pitch night is a stitch in time.

Mr. Martin Michael explained that, since 2007 Mercury International has been involved in a wide variety of corporate social responsibilities by awarding scholarships to approximately 2000 students, providing abroad treatment for people with severe ailments and having built two schools.

Conversely, they were never introduced to such a platform wherein they could have the opportunity to aid entrepreneurs, which is why they had decided to partner with Innovation SL through the Freetown Pitch Night to provide a seed capital of $25,000 in total for five sessions of FPN and two out of the five sessions would be exclusively for female entrepreneurs. This is so because female entrepreneurs face the most challenges in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The emerging winner would help to alleviate poverty by creating job opportunities and payment of tax as that is what they are looking forward to. He left the stage thanking Mr. Stevens-George for the shared platform.

One of the hosts Ms. Francess Beresford-Renner ushered the panel of judges to introduce themselves and they were predominantly women, namely: Fatmata Sesay, John Wearing, Tafadzwa Chiganga, Waheed Awonuga and Mavis Madaure.

The pitch proper started immediately after the judges had introduced themselves and pitchers were reminded of the pitch’s rules which include the utilization of five minutes for presentation and two minutes for questions and answers, all summing up to seven minutes per pitcher.

The first pitcher for the night, Panashe Chikhata from Recycle2Skill, is a young hardworking and innovative female entrepreneur who has strong culinary and computer skills. She has been working with a team of four members; 3 female and 1 male that has the Practera programme, a programme that has been working with Seed Stars (an incubation company) in Switzerland. As a young female entrepreneur, she has a vision of empowering unskilled youths by providing them with skills at the cost of plastic waste. The business would have a positive impact: socially, economically and environmentally. This will help curb the problem of waste management and mitigate the issue of climate change.

The second pitcher Emily Kumba Fanday from ‘The Community’ has a peer-to-peer lending platform that has been allowing individuals or institutions to lend directly to borrowers in both formal and informal businesses. The community project was launched in 2022 having a population of 70 people; 30 female and 40 men. It has been seen as a viable market that provides loan services among institutions, businesses and individuals who are interested. Due to the huge market size, they have decided to have a low operation cost, minimal regulation, big data and technologies to streamline models. This is because they wanted to disrupt the system of how loans are given. To ensure the lender’s trust, the Community has a license of operations from the Bank of Sierra Leone which makes it reliable and secure. They had a business treat and control unit structure that would help lenders have better ROI.

The third pitcher was Mariama Bah from Rise Radio 96.3 FM who started by asserting that Climate change has been a global phenomenon caused by human activities primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Burning fossil fuel generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising the temperature. Looking at the topography of Sierra Leone, there is a dire need to discuss the

causes, impacts and solutions of climate change. Due to the lack of awareness (no specified programme on climate change by radio station) there was a sense of massive deforestation in both rural and urban areas causing flooding and soil erosion nationwide. This has impeded the production of agricultural goods. Rise radio has a dedicated 4 hours radio program that would be providing radio content and radio drama that would be deemed fit for climate change discourse.

The fourth pitcher was Lydia Bernard-Jones from ‘The Bridge’ who has proved to be a link between young Sierra Leoneans and the opportunities to get resources in order to maximize their potential. There are many students in Sierra Leone who lacked the opportunities of having scholarships and they needed someone to cross the bridge, by creating a platform for scholarship opportunities ranging from secondary school to university and sharing links with peers and mentors in their field internationally. The bridge would provide prestigious and productive young people equipped with experience to be competitive in their careers. This would build a strong cohort of youths that would be equipped with the skills.

The fifth pitcher Nippy Bah is the leader of ‘Mamie Coker. Mamie Coker’ has a project that ensures young people employment in Sierra Leone. It’s a team made up of 5 members; 3 females and 2 males experienced in code and web development. The project stemmed from the fact that a girl was in desperation to secure a job. Relatively, a platform called Mamie-Coker was created to connect clients with skilled and reliable workers. From the research that was conducted, approximately 100 people were asked about their pressing needs and what they were willing to pay for. 70% said they are willing to pay for skilled workers. Such could be applicable by creating profiles for both businesses and prospective workers, connecting clients to workers or hiring workers on behalf of the client and monitoring until the job is done and encouraging feedback from both workers and clients. Using technological tools, it would improve access to service in various skilled service fields and also promote digital literacy in an efficient manner.

Fatmata Kargbo, the penultimate pitcher from Tamara Millennium company, expressed that their business vision is to empower underprivileged women by providing them with essential training to help them sustainably earn their daily income. She explained that their financial struggles are often caused by the lack of seed capital and knowledge on how to utilize it.

Therefore, there was a need to create Agro-forestry cooperation for these women to get training on crop practice which would increase production. They would be providing basic business management skills as well as bookkeeping while making sure that they would be weeding the seed bed and proper farm check-ups. Participatory field research was conducted; the research informed that, if they had been working with them it would have been better.

Ms Hawanatu Sesay, the final pitcher, co-founder of the Wi-AgricTech business which focused on designing Green and Smart farming technologies to improve and increase the quality of food products nationwide. In Sierra Leone, the males have outshone females when it comes to technology which is why she served as a bridge to connect more females in the tech world. That is why she focused on farming technologies to increase the production of crops. With these technologies, they would train over 500 farmers by 2025 for the cultivation of vegetables worth 1 ton annually. The io T plant monitoring device through a cloud-based technology via phone could detect soil fertility, plant growth and moisture level of the plant, it could take an automatic decision on behalf of an individual regarding water, light penetration and nutrient level. The technology has been highly secure, efficient and reliable.

Madam Isatu Harrison the CEO/founder of creative hub Africa and Izelia Fashion who was the guest speaker for the night, started her speech by explaining that she obviously did not wake up one day and got to where she is currently as she had to go through some rough patch and challenging times. Cleaning was her first business; she started with a mop and a bucket where she employed 10 people and had some others as part-timers. The cleaning business was successful as she had a Ghanaian woman who worked so hard to own part of the company. She later sold the business and pursued a hairdressing venture which she fancied; ended up selling the cleaning business and failed in the hairdressing saloon. She relentlessly moved over to being a seamstress as all she had left was a singer machine and some Ankara pieces, being a business person who has always had a knack for fashion she then ventured into the fashion industry with just a sewing machine and eventually developed the brand called Izelia, which is well known today for its signature gara tye fashion prints all over the entrepreneurial ecosystem. She finally encouraged young female entrepreneurs to use what they have until they can get what they need.

At the final phase of the event, the judges have presented gifts of appreciation on behalf of Innovation SL before declaring the winner. Certificates were presented to all the pitchers

respectively, starting from the rear. The judges unanimously declared “the Community ” led by Emily Kumba Fanday as the winner of the 2023 Freetown Pitch Night, fempreneur edition. The MD of mercury international, Mr. Martin Michaels presented the cheque of $500 as seed capital to the winner and the event was concluded with an atmosphere of excitement and high anticipation for the next edition of the Freetown Pitch Night slated for the 13th of May 2023.

REPORTED BY- George Garber

EDITED BY- Francess Beresford-Renner

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2023_Pitch_Nights, Competition, ecosystem, frempreneur, News, Pitchers, Women

August 31, 2022

EdTech Pitch Night- August Edition

“Edtech” is the theme for this month’s Pitch Night, which was held at Limkokwing University on the 31st of August, 2022. It is a night where different innovators come with their ideas on how to help improve the educational system in Sierra Leone through the use of technology (either online or offline). Mrs. Emily Bah chaired the event by starting with individual prayers and welcoming the guests and thereafter she explained the significance of the event as an opportunity for startups or entrepreneurs to not just market their products/businesses but also to solicit feedback to help their businesses grow. After the four judges of the event namely Dr. Brian E. Conton, Madam Sunnah Keili, Mr. Simon E. Tsike-Sossah and Mr. Abdulsalam Kamara have introduced themselves, Mrs. Emily called on the first pitcher.

Mr. Mohamed Bangura, a member of King Medo Tech, who highlighted in his pitch that as a company their idea aims to solve the increasing problem of potential errors or miscalculations, lack of proper database for keeping track of grades, inconsistencies in student records, report generation which takes a long time and unauthorized access in schools and colleges by providing a SierraGrade School Result Manager (SierraGrade). This is a system that is an automated, secured and error free result manager that produces report cards in less time and keeps track of all grades for future reference with three months of free usage, free training & technical support and also free video tutorials for their users.

Mr Abdulsalam Kamara, one of the judges commended Mr. Bangura for his brilliant idea and asked him how sustainable the business is and if it has easy access. He also asked about the structures he has put in place for security purposes.

Dr. Brian Conton congratulated him for identifying one of the key areas affecting the schools and colleges. He asked the pitcher where the data is saved since it is an offline system and his competitive advantage.

Mr. Simon E. Tsike-Sossah asked if he could input data into the system as a client. Madam Sunnah Keili asked how different the system is from the general automated system.

The second pitcher Mr. Alusine Barrie explained that through his Fore-Front company, there is High Quality private tutoring, e-learning and education consultancy. This actually works to produce a guaranteed exam success and skills mastery, leverage technology and innovative teaching & learning to ‘multiply’ great teaching through their E-Learning packages, provide evidence based approach through his baseline and monthly progress tracking & reporting to clients & benefactors.

The Judges asked Mr. Alusine Barrie what is unique about his business since there is YouTube to watch video tutorials from. Mr. Simon E. Tsike-Sossah recommended Mr. Barrie for the energy he used in conducting this current teaching.

Dr.Brian E. Conton asked Mr. Alusine Barrie about the methodology he is using and how he can use it to combine it with E-Learning.

Mr. Peter Tom Nyamah was the third pitcher. He stated that his idea is to start a Preschool Learning Aids that would solve the problem of the methods of teaching in preschool because of the unavailability of appropriate teaching materials in preschool by providing teaching aids for 2-3 years old pupils.

Mr. Nyamah was asked why he did not bring the box (calculator) and how he knew that the product lasts for ten years since they just started in2018. Dr. Brian E. Conton asked why he started by giving the figures for WASSCE and then went back to talking about Pre-Schools.

Eventually, Mr Emmanuel Kamanda, innovator of an offline Stem Server called LOREM, was the fourth and final pitcher. Mr. Kamanda’s idea is geared towards solving the problem of students not having affordable & reliable access to organized quality stem content by creating the above named server for schools and colleges.

The judges asked Mr. Kamanda how the App would generate revenue. Mr. Abdulsalam commended Mr. Kamanda by saying he liked his project. He also asked that he work with Mr. Barrie since they have similar ideas. Madam Sunnah asked how he decides which contents to show the customer/students.

As the theme of this month states, the platform was lively with brilliant ideas from the pitchers and tremendous advice, comments and questions from the judges. The Pitch Night was interactive as Mrs. Emily asked some entrepreneurs to come and market their product to the audience. Madam Nyallay Sheriff talked about her product Metro Cables, Mr. Emmanuel from CARE Sierra Leone talked about new product they are offering to the public wit a generous profit margin. which is and Mr. Victor Pratt from dot.Bleu talked on the different packages they are offering. She also engaged the audience to keep their questions for the pitchers for after the event as there is no time for that now.

The event was brought to an end when the judges announced the winners of the pitch event as Mr Mohamed Bangura, followed by Mr Emmanuel Kamanda who took the second position. Mr Alusine Barrie and Mr Peter Tom Nyamah came in closer with a tie for the third position. Miss Nyallay Sheriff presented the gift to Madam Sunnah Keili, Dr Modupeh Taylor Pierce presented the gift to Dr Brian E. Conton, Mr Emmanuel Boima presented to Mr Simon E. Tsike-Sossah and Mr. David Manley presented to Mr Abdulsalam Kamara on behalf of Freetown Pitch Night. Mrs. Emily’s then gave the closing remark and vote of thanks

Compiled By,

Julliet Josiah.

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Edtech, Edtech, Uncategorized

July 27, 2022

Crazy Night

“Crazy Night” as the theme for this month’s Pitch edition held at Limkokwing University on the 27th of July, 2022 refers to a night where crazy but creative ideas were displayed. The event was chaired by Mrs. Emily Bah, who welcomed the guests and thereafter explained the significance of the event as an opportunity for startups or entrepreneurs with crazy but innovative ideas in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Mrs Emily later introduced Mr. Francis Stevens George , MD of Innovation SL who later emphasized the significance of Crazy Pitch Night, and welcomed all who were in attendance to witness the Pitch Night.

After the introduction of the four judges of the event namely in the persons of Mr. Nick Asigil, Madam Naasu Fofanah, Dr. Wahid Awonuga and Madam Fatima Sesay, Mrs. Emily called on the first pitcher Mr. Adonis Assaf, a member of Stratton Electric, who highlighted in his pitch that as a company their crazy idea aims to solve the fluctuating problem of rising cost of gasoline in the country by providing an Electric Auto RickShaw(keh keh) as a means of transport at a cheaper and affordable cost for the working class people in Freetown.

The judges commended Mr. Assaf for his brilliant idea and advised him to redefine his target market. However, the Judges enquired how Stratton would ensure safety for passengers, warranty of the Auto-RickShaw(keh keh), battery duration, their target market and transactions and financials.

The second pitcher Mr. John Abdul Turay explained that through his Fintech Digital Osusu Platform, Osusu transactions will go cashless which will enforce accountability, transparency between the Osusu masters and members.

The Judges asked whether research was done to determine the number of illiterate and literate people that are in the Osusu Business, they also questioned his current market size, transactions and financials, the cost of building the App, the security measures he has in place if the App is hacked and how he intends to generate income from the App. The Judges recommended that he finetune his innovation and seek advice from people that have been championing the traditional way of Osusu collection.

Sir Prince Malcolm Nuni was the third pitcher. He stated that his crazy idea is to start an Airline Services that would solve the problem that Business Persons, Domestic Tourists, International Organizations, Government Officials and NGOs face when using roads to travel by providing fast, safe and comfortable Air Transportation that offers both Business and Economy class

Mr. Nuni was applauded by the judges for his initiative and subsequently questioned his target market, flight experience, the place that would serve as the landing site, the type of aircrafts he intends to use and the personnels that would manage the Airline.

Eventually, Kelly Kamara, innovator of an online football App called MiddleMan, was the fourth and final pitcher. Mr. Kamara’s crazy idea is geared towards solving the problem of lack of international exposure of Sierra Leonean Players by creating the above named App to expose Sierra Leonean players to both International and Local Football Agents, Football Managers and Football Scouts.

Mr. Kelly Kamara was asked by the judges how the App would generate revenue, what would and advised that

In line with its theme, this month’s Pitch Night was interactive and hilarious. The host Mrs. Emily bah engaged the audience allowed them to pose questions to the pitchers and organizers of the Crazy Pitch Night and displayed hilarious images to entertain the guests

The event climaxed with the announcement of the pitch winners the Electric Keh-Keh and Osusu Master App as winners of the Crazy Pitch Night. Granta Kanda Airways came in 2nd and Football App took 3rd place. Ms. Hickmatu, Mr. Bashir, Mr. Raphael and Mr. Manato Presented gifts to the judges on behalf of Freetown Pitch Night and Ms. Emily’s closing remark and vote of thanks

Compiled By,

Fanta Lomax.

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2022 Season, Open Night, Pitchers, Uncategorized

June 29, 2022

Sustainable Fashion June 2022

In collaboration with BlueCrest College, Freetown Pitch Night held its monthly June edition of Pitch Night at Limkokwing University at Hill Station, Freetown on Wednesday, 29th of June, 2022.

The theme of this month’s edition is Sustainable Fashion which is geared towards raising the awareness of the effect of fast fashion and the involvement of all other practices in the fashion industry that may cause harm to the environment.

The event was chaired by Mrs.Emily Bah, who welcomed the guests and thereafter gave a brief history of Fashion and later introduced Mr.Francis, MD of Innovation SL who later emphasized the importance of Sustainable Fashion and subsequently recognise very important guests and all who were in attendance to witness the Pitch Night.

After the introduction of Judges, Mrs.Emily called on the first pitcher, Ms . Fatima Sesay CEO of Sew Lovely Online Boutique aims to solve environmental issue, global warming by recycling old clothes and fabrics into new products that are comfortable and unique, while contributing to saving the environment.

The judges questioned Ms.Fatimas financial tractions, what sets her apart from other fashion designers, her marketing strategy and recommended that she gets a clear understanding of what she intends to do with the funds required.

Ms.Jalikatu Jalloh, owner of NA IKA ( laba-chonchi) was the second pitcher. Ms.Jalloh highlighted that her business is an inclusive brand aimed at promoting sustainable fashion by using organic materials to dye garments and make unique patterns While protecting the planet and contributing to reducing the use of toxic chemicals by 95% and water wastage by 90%.

The Judges commended her initiative and asked Ms.Jalikatu to define her customer base, the type of leaves or plants she uses to dye.After being queried about her dyeing process, she quickly explained to everyone how she obtains the raw products used to dye her fabrics.

The third pitcher was Ms.Cecilia Fofanah who stated that she wants to solve the problem of fast fashion by using end of life(old or used) materials to produce new designs with excellent customer service.

After being questioned about her customer base and the channels she uses to notify her go-to-market about her designs; Ms.Cecilia gave the necessary information required to the judges.

Mrs. Haja Dalanda Masally, Co Founder of Waste Way, stated that her business produces durable backpacks, clothes and other designs. They also co-create with customers. Mrs. Haja highlighted that their products are eco-friendly, made out of waste and it is 90% plastic and 10% cotton. And that any product purchased from them helps save at least 450 single-use plastic from ending up in the ocean.

One of the Judges questioned the veracity of the statistics she provided. The others asked how intends to pioneer the idea, her marketing strategy and advised that she draws up a realistic approach with a detailed plan of where she wants her business in the next three to six months

This month’s pitch night was different and spectacular, the function also had a runway show. There were models who did a swift runway for the audience showcasing fabulous and beautiful designs made by brilliant fashion designers from BlueCrest College.

Mr.Rajiv and Ms. Daniella Coker from Blue Crest College was called upon to say a few words. Mr. Rajiv briefly enlightened the audience about their fashion department in BlueCrest and expressed his gratitude to his students who were the fashion designers and to the audience for their undivided attention.

The event ended with the announcement of all the five Pitchers as winners because they all had exceptional and brilliant ideas and the presentation of gifts by distinguished guests to the Judges.

The best 3 dresses made by the students of bueCrest were awarded cash Prizes; SLL 1,500,000, SLL 1,000,00, SLL 750,000 respectively.

Written By,

Fanta Lomax.

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2022 Season, Fashion & Creative arts

October 7, 2020

Orange Social Venture Prize 2020

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;

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.

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

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2020, social entrepreneurship

December 16, 2019

Student Agro-Processing Pitch Night

Agro-processing refers to the addition of value to raw agricultural material through product transformation; postharvest grading, sorting, washing, and packaging; and storage and distribution.

Six students with ideas on agro processing from Njala, FBC, UNIMAK, IPAM will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges. This edition of the Freetown Pitch Night is in partnership with SL Agcelerator– a program under the Sierra Leone Agro Processing Competitiveness Program.

The Sierra Leone Agro – Processing Competiveness Project (SLAP- CP) focusses on providing solutions to key market failures inhibiting competitiveness of the agro processing sector and limiting firms and SME productivity in Sierra Leone. The SLAP – CP’s mission is to develop through its accelerator programme, high growth potential SMEs with the capacity to disrupt, expand and consolidate on the huge agribusiness potential that the country’s agricultural sector has to offer.

The six students chosen to pitch where:

To be completed.

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2019, News, Student

August 30, 2019

Kaifala Mansaray

Am Kaifala mansaray, an architectural student from the Limkokwing university of creative technology Sierra Leone,
studying Interior Design and also the creative director of Design Cube an upcoming architectural and interior design company.

I would be pitching a great solution to the current housing crises the country is facing and precisely Freetown.
Which is container housing the most affordable and quick built home. With benefits of been low cost , Eco-friendly, designed off grid and responds to the business, social and environmental need. Which we as a company here working towards a large reduction in the percentage of this crises ,with our container housing idea for the next year or two to come.

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2019, Open Night, Pitchers, Profiles

August 30, 2019

Sorie Sankoh

Sorie is the founder for SaloneBuy.com a free listing website and a mobile app that allows businesses to post their product online and advertise for free. Sorie is also the founder for CARDO Sierra Leone, an NGO. He is passionate about helping children from rural communities. Growing up in a poor family himself. Sorie later perfected his computer skills and enrolled for a degree in Information Technology at the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) University of Sierra Leone.
At 18, he was able to apply these skills repairing computers to help earn money for his NGO. His skills include, intermediate level in web-app development (PHP – Laravel, and JavaScript – Vue.Js), and have developed a few personal projects. Also, he is involved in tech advocacy.
“He is a firm believer in local solutions that can cause global impact, and that technology, and youth-power has a lot to play in the development of the new face of Africa. He loves travelling and exploring new places as this helps his creative process.”

In December, 2018. Sorie launched SaloneBuy.com, Sorie distinguish himself in the I.T. field as a next generation entrepreneur. He would like to continue his entrepreneurial spirit to benefit pan-Africa at large and would like to continue to provide structured and innovative solutions to benefit all of Africa. He moves forward with an emphasis on social and economic benefits with the ultimate goal of propelling economic prosperity and social progress together as one platform. “I feel “technology for the public good” is imperative to a civil society and will help guide competitiveness and free market principles in Africa as well as providing for a stable, productive, and democratic future.” Sorie Affirmed in an interviewed.
Sankoh spent most of his time advocating for rural children with adverse poverty in support of education in Sierra Leone dedicating his time to help others in need, especially children in any way he could. Since he is from a small remote village in the Northern part of Sierra Leone, he needed to walk about 14 miles to attending to school.
His tireless determination, passion and commitment for education helped him to reach this milestone.
The fulfillment that came with helping children in a developing country like Sierra Leone inspired him to advocate for vulnerable orphans and out of school children, devoting his time to provide other children the opportunity to receive quality education.

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2019, Open Night, Pitchers, Profiles

August 30, 2019

Abdulai Barrie

My name is Abdulai Barrie, I am a Sierra Leonean, I am a writer, Filmmaker and entrepreneur, I enthusiast, dedicated to work, I accomplished what ever that is set to accomplish, even doe I came from a deprived family background but I strongly believe that I was created for a purpose and what ever I do takes me closer to purpose, I man on a mission, I believe in God and in myself, I am the founder and Director of Creative Media Network SL, a multimedia organization set up to raise awareness on social issues using film to tell untold stories affecting society, also I am founder of BaBa E-commerce Agric Food Market an alternative market to small and medium scale farmers, the idea is born out of Challenges presented by the imperfect Agric market, that doesn’t give space to small and medium scale farmers to fair competition, that why I want to set up an E-commerce Agric market that is open and encourage them our local farmers and food producer to trade both locally and internationally.

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2019, Open Night, Pitchers, Profiles

August 30, 2019

Seye Olusoj

Seye Olusoji is an Art Director and a Photographer, he is the CEO of Seyestar Studios (Seyestar.com).
Olusoji Seye is a 21st Century Photographer, Director (movie, and theatre), Actor, and Event Planner. Seye has over 5 years working experience in digital photography. The co-founder of Seyestar, an outlet that handles projects related to Photography, Theatre Arts, Film Production, and Print Media. He takes great photographs, still, motion documentaries and graphics design.

He started his career as a Performing Artist, in the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. After his graduation, he founded Sè Theatre Arts in Ilorin. During his cause of study in the university, he held the position of an assistant director for a stage play titled: Octorush. His directorial skills won him a departmental award as the “Best Drama Performance of the Year” in 2016, and the title of the play he directed was “Ijaye” by Wale Ogunyemi. This same play also won an award for best costume, and was handed to him by the Performing Arts Students Association Award (PASA Award).

He traveled with National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) group to represent Kastina State in Mangu, Jos. Where the group emerged the second in Dance and came third in Drama. In 2019, He staged a theatrical project in Freetown Sierra Leone titled: The Suitcase. The project was in collaborations with another theatre troop (Stage to Stage Marshalls) and the British Council in Freetown. Sierra Leone.

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2019, Fashion & Creative arts, Pitchers, Profiles

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