At the 4th edition of the Orange Social Venture, awards have been given to deserving winners at their headquarters in Freetown on Thursday, 1st. September 2022, eight finalists who were among the numerous lot pitched their enterprises, and it ranged from topics peculiar to the Sierra Leone situation.
In the full glare of the media and expert judges their ideas were vetted and those whose story idea proved helpful and productive to Sierra Leone were awarded. It was a jam-packed hall and comedian, Yematta ‘the laughing matter’ released the stress of attendees that evening.
The competition was declared open this year and so many people applied, but only eight people made it to the pitch night. Orange SL, the leading mobile phone company in the country has decided to give back to Sierra Leone but this time to people who have innovative ways of positively impacting their communities in particular and the country as a whole.
In the last three years financial rewards have been given to deserving winners but prize money was increased Le. 100,000,000 (old Leones).
After carefully listening to the various pitches, the judges put together their scores and came out with three finalists.
And the pitch ideas that made it were ; Auto Smart Innovation by Osman Yaah who took the grand prize of Le.100,000,000( One hundred million leones ) old currency, second place went to Joseph Koroma who pitched the idea of Life Blood and third place went to the pitch idea of Eco Friendly Combatting.
Another category was created by OrangeSL which Tech Innovation for which Le.50,000,000(Fifty million leones) old leone was awarded and the deserving winner was Adeolla Carew. It was created to make the competition ‘inclusive’ as women were encouraged to take part in the competition.
The Chief Innovation Officer of Orange, Foday Kamara gave a brief statement encouraging Sierra Leoneans to to be ‘intuitive, original and problem-solving in their approach to issues’.
He reminded the crowd ‘going to university is not the only means of making it in life’. But with steadfastness and making the best use of God- given talents can make things work for all of us. In presenting the award, the chief judge, told the gathering that the scores were collated with fairness, integrity and due diligence. And entreated anyone who did not feel pleased with the result to crosscheck and fact check. The competition will continue this year.