By Foday Moriba Conteh
As part of their efforts towards strengthening and modernizing the waste management sector by providing support to digitalized waste management activities and processes across the city, the Freetown Waste Transformers SL LTD, in partnership with the Freetown City Council, through the Office of the Mayor of Freetown, the Waste Collection Management Association has held a one day event on Strengthening Capacity of Waste Collectors through TECH. The ceremony was held at the Freetown City Hall in Freetown.
Speaking during the ceremony, Founder/Chief Executive Officer of the Freetown Waste Transformers SL LTD, Aminata Dumbuya Jarr, informed pressmen that the adoption of Information, Communication Technology (ICT), through a grant from the GSMA Innovation Fund, supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) will help deliver a tailored mobile application solution.
She informed all that the organization held a two day town hall meeting for waste collectors in order source their opinions with regards the digitalization of waste management collection in the country, furthering that from the information got were analyzed by the IT team and from that point they developed the first iteration of the digital mobile application. Aminata Dumbuya Jarr added that the event was geared towards bringing waste collectors together in order to take a look at the application and also do a test case of the application.
“The move by the organization is to ensure that we digitalize waste collection in the country. We are all aware that the world is going digital so we intend to carry Sierra Leoneans through that digital transformation and that after completion the application will be utilized in Freetown in order to collect waste through Tech in the country,” Aminata Dumbuya Jarr expressed optimism.
The Chief Executive Officer, MeDomot Incorporation, Joseph Jawah Kebbie, said MeDomot Incorporation is a Sierra Leone based Information Communications Technology firm which will deliver on the development of the application adding that it is a result of findings from a report that aims to develop and highlight specific recommendations to addressing the needs and challenges in the waste management sector.
He said with the mobile application, waste collectors with Smartphones will be able to do waste pickups using the application and that Sierra Leoneans using Smartphones who also want their waste to be collected can login into the application and be able to locate waste collectors within their various communities.
The CEO further informed all that the application will have features of tracking waste collectors and the waste collectors will in turn be able to see waste collection schedules within their localities.
“Currently we are doing test cases of the application and we are hoping to officially launch the mobile application by the end of this year. But before that we have equipped our waste collectors as to the use of the mobile application,” he concluded.
On his part, the Program Coordinator for Solid Waste Micro Enterprise Program at the Freetown City Council, Augustine Kamara revealed that the development of the waste collection mobile application is in line with the Council’s Transform Freetown Initiative.
He pointed out that having such an application is a welcome idea in order to address issues related to waste collection within the Freetown Municipality.
The Coordinator of Block Seven at Waste Collection Management Association, James Robert, commended the Freetown Waste Transformers SL Ltd for the development of the waste collection mobile application which he described as a laudable venture.
He said that with the introduction of the application it will definitely support their work as waste collectors.
After statements were made, a presentation of the Needs Assessment Report, software demonstration & flow chart presentation on the application and live demonstration of the prototype, software testing, discussions and feedback from participants followed.
