Open Night Report
Freetown Pitch Night is the platform “Where Ideas Come to Life”. This month’s pitch night was Open Night. In Sierra Leone, Freetown especially, we do not need to imagine the environmental impacts of poor waste management. We experience it. Open Night showcased three (3) social entrepreneurs solving the problem of poor waste management through different models and one (1) solving the hygienic problems of poorly handled groundnut paste.
The venue was packed full with an audience of 90+ attendees including the GEN SL team, sponsors of Freetown Pitch Night, executives of companies and organisations, entrepreneurs, young professionals and students. As always, it was a cozy and interactive audience.
At the end of each pitch, there was a brief Q & A session. A panel of three (3): Ram Shankerdaas (G. Shankerdaas Ltd), Salton Massally (IDT Labs) and James Houghton (Crown Agency), gave feedback of the four (4) business pitches at the end of all the pitches.
The Freetown Pitch Night gives it’s audience an opportunity to network, so most of the attendees are reluctant to leave early when the event ends.
The four (4) pitches were as follows:
Sulryka One Health Services
In 2018, government allocated Le11.7 billion for purchase of inorganic fertilizer. This is a result of the lack of skills and facilities to transform waste to useful products such as organic fertilizers. Sulryka is a private sector investment that engages in poultry, vegetables and fruits farming as well as transforming the waste to organic fertilizers and other useful products. The company provides sustainable supply of soil fertility enhancers to farmers.
The pillars of the business are:
- economic growth
- job creation
- environmental protection
- research
- partnership
- prevention and control of diseases
Dr. Sulaiman Lakoh
Skype: lakohs2009
Email: lakoh2009@gmail.com
Call:+23278287492
Shae Recycling
Sierra Leone has a waste management crisis and there needs to be an attitudinal or behavioral change. At least 745 tons or more of garbage is produced per day ( averaging 0.45kg per person per day) in Freetown Municipality. There is poor and outdated waste management infrastructure, an increase in waterborne diseases, few waste management companies / institutions. Shae Recycling proposed a two stage solution in meeting the waste management crisis we now face in Sierra Leone:
- To implement and coordinate an effective and robust garbage collection campaign
- Use recycling applications to transform the waste collected into valuable resources.
Garbage Collection (Nov 2017 to June 2018)
- 8 tonnes of garbage have been collected with an average of 1 tonne per month from various clients.
The recycling application includes:
- Converting used and unwanted plastic into pavement bricks for public side street walk and private residences
- Converting used tires into fine indoor and outdoor furniture and decoration. This was first displayed at the Dec 2017, Tangains Festival
- Our household garbage bin. Shae recycling promotes the idea of each household having garbage bin bag / containers
Emmanuel M. Boima
Email: info@shaerecycling.sl
Website: www.shaerecycling.sl
Call: +23278554427 / +23276601446 / +23230200163 / +23278883113
Kangama Trading
Kangama Trading’s solution to the waste problem in Freetown is in phases.
Currently, the company is into phase one, which is to collect and buy waste plastics from community youths and convert them into pavement blocks. The success of this phase will provide funds, to move into phase two and subsequently phase three. Phase two is to extract gas from the waste and phase three will convert waste into electricity.
Kangama Trading aims to:
- solve the community plastic waste problem
- bring in a durable product that is guarantee and can last longer than the normal cement blocks
- support local content push to have a Sierra Leone gas company that produces it own cooking gas from waste
- utilize the waste to give back the community electricity
Call: +23277768276 / +23278374170
Email: kangama36@gmail.com
Utility Groundnut Paste
Based on observations, it is inferred that at least 6 out of every 10 households directly or
indirectly consumes groundnut paste either as bread spread or most often used as an ingredient in variety of our sauces. Because of the poor hygienic problems and the unstable and high prices of groundnut, Utility Groundnut Paste company buys and stores groundnut to combat its fluctuating prices and make it available to customers at an efficient rate. The processing of groundnut is done with utmost consideration for hygiene and machines are used for sealing.
Alfred Halim Navo
Email: alfrednavo@gmail.com
Call: +23230590559 / +23278072249
Written by Davephine Thorley
