A Non-Governmental Organization, Craving for development has pitched a discussion programme called The Ignition Hour. The programme is searching for ten entrepreneurs to tackle sector disrupting innovation to the Sierra Leone agribusiness ecosystem.
On Thursday, the team started to listen to ideas from Sierra Leonean innovators at the Creative Hub Africa Lumley in Freetown.
The Ignition Hour Venture Building Program is a 24- month initiative that will take innovators ideas to high growth and Value Company.
In an interview with the CO- Founder and the CO- Director for craving for development, Aminata Kane, that the Ignition started 2018 by craving for development to support entrepreneurs.
This is the fourth season, after conducting successful three sessions.” What we are hoping to have is that entrepreneurs will pick up the business opportunity and would share them in their sectors and then start businesses”
The format of the ignition hour before this one she said wasn’t for them to automatically collect the business idea, but with this one “we wanted it to be generated organically, by getting them naturally here and get their business ideas”.
“So we wanna just have the show where entrepreneurs will come in and sharing business ideas, like business opportunity and also building their skills and that went for three years
And then maybe we pull the maximum of twenty and those twenty that registered for the access to finance program not to the venture building program.”
She said entrepreneurs are more focused on accessing finance than starting businesses. According to her this could positively be disruptive to the ecosystem or could help them contribute to developing.
“So we don’t help them with ideas, right now, we don’t even know who is going to come up with idea and we wanted it that way.”
Upon the twelve ideas presented, she maintained that six are invalid because they do not enhance the ecosystem.
“We want something that would give solution to the logistical issues, that will help grow very safely and very securely for twenty four months and at the end of those twenty four months, they will be able to raise one hundred thousand dollars.”
She added: “We are looking for ten vibrant ideas. We are looking for sector disrupting ideas, ideas that are capable of disrupting the agricultural sector .we have already identify the problems. We looking for sector disrupting or ideas that are bringing solution to the whole ecosystem,” she stated.
She said $20,000 will be given to each of the ten Entrepreneurs whose ideas will have been deemed for to solve ecosystem.
Prior to the pitching of ideas by the innovators, panel discussion was held on the agriculture by three panelists.