First Orange Social Venture Prize
Freetown Pitch Night organised the first Orange Social Prize event in Sierra Leone.
The contest aims to reward the best innovative and socially responsible business projects in Africa and the Middle East. Three entrants will compete to pitch to an international jury in Cape Town.
The three finalist where as follows:
Agro Fish farm company Ltd is company that focuses on fish farming business we are growing tilapia, and it is one the specie that is culturable in Sierra Leone. As founder I decided to venture in this sector because I studied Aquaculture and fisheries management in School and also I have realized that malnutrition is well spread in among children (0-5years) pregnant women and lactating mothers in rural communities. In addition that we have verse wetlands in these settlement that are not effectively utilized, so we converting some these wetlands to construction fish pond and that is the facility we are using to grow our fish from fingerlings (baby fish) to table size (Mature fish). We start a pliot phrase in 2017 and the result was awesome and now we are on our second cycle.
As company we are have able to employ 30 part time workers and three full time staff, also we have provide sustainable livelihood for some fish sellers because before our intervention they have to long distance to get the local fish they sell and sometime it will not be available be the sources is not sustainable. However, we have engaged in indentifying local fish within Bo town presently we have 10 that we wish to work with and provide input and training for them as well. Local farmer are involved in this sector but they have not be able to scale-up because of some problem in the industry which are no fish feed, lack technical skills and lack of equipment.
Production of Biogas using Cow – dung as a preferred energy fuel in rural Areas for Cooking
Sierra Leone`s energy consumption is dominated by biomass of which 80% of the energy generated for cooking is derived from tradition fuel (firewood and Charcoal), with 64% of the total population living in rural provinces. The harvesting of this fuel will lead to serious environmental degradation and effects of high rate of unemployment (74%). These practices threaten the health and quality of lives of women and children in particular; rapid urbanization and this will affect the ecological balance and biodiversity of the country. This project focuses on how to use cow – dung as a preferred energy source for cooking in rural communities, with its benefits for example; providing sustainable clean green biogas, production of fertilizers, mitigate high unemployment rate etc.
Edutainment Network (E Net)
This project started as a response to meet the educational and capacity building needs of the growing population of secondary school pupils and youths in the form of an online student resource center, that is an E learning web portal and Mobile App. The main aim is to provide Quality Educational contents/modules/courses for young minds still in the schooling system through new IT technologies like an e learning web portal and mobile App providing FREE Quality learning resources, training, counselling, exam preparation, private testing (online), ICT and basic courses and more to make them more productive and workforce ready to meet the changes and challenges of this digital age. We Provide students the access to quality learning materials in several multimedia and SCORM format. We intend to transform our traditional learning methods, to promote more student collaboration and innovation through a digital learning environment and a student centered workplace/study place. A strategic partnership with a mobile network operator through either a subscription bundle like the one currently used for Facebook and WhatsApp for the Mobile App or an agreement to make our website freely accessible by students who wish to benefit from our offerings through their network will unleash a new wave of excitement and interests to pupils. The blueprint of this proposal is to nurture minds, talents and skills of students for socio-economic development and to empower them to be self-reliant and self-sufficient and above average working professionals.
Aminata Kandeh of Agro Fish Farm emerged as the winner. She got a SLL 10.million prize. Ednet finished in second place and Bio gass in third.
The winners was presented with the various prizes by the top management of Orange Sierra Leone.
