As part of their effort towards strengthen the waste management sector by providing support to digitalize waste management activities and processes across the city, Freetown Waste Transformers SL Ltd in partnership with Freetown City Council, through the office of the Mayor of Freetown, the Waste Collection Management Association has held one-day testing workshop of the waste App as a means of Strengthening Capacity of Waste Collectors through TECH. The ceremony was held at the Freetown City Hall in Freetown.
Speaking during the ceremony, the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Freetown Waste Transformers SL LTD, Aminata Dumbuya Jarr, informed pressmen that the adopting of Information Communication Technology (ICT) will help deliver a tailored mobile application solution which is made possible with grant from
The GSMA Innovation Fund, supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
She informed all the organization held a two days town hall meeting for waste collectors in order to keep their opinions towards the digitalization of waste management collection in the country, furthering that from those information were analyze by the IT team and develop the first iteration of the digital mobile Application.
She added that the event is geared towards bringing those waste collectors together again in order to take a look at the application and also do a taste 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 maintained.
Chief Executive Officer, MeDomot Incorporation, Joseph Jawah Kebbie, said that MeDomot Incorporation is a Sierra Leone based Information Communications Technology firm which will deliver on the development of the application, adding that this is a result of a 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 with their various communities at the comfort of their zone.
The CEO informed all that the application is going to have features of tracking waste collectors and the waste collectors will in turn be able to see waste collection schedule within their localities.
“Currently, we are doing induration of the application and we are hoping to officially launch the mobile application by the end of this year. But before that we 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 the issues on waste collection within the Freetown Municipality.
The Coordinator of Block Seven at Waste Collection Management Association, James Robert, commended 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 this application it will definitely support their work as waste collectors.
Following statements was the presentation of the Needs Assessment Report, software demonstration & flow chart presentation on the application, and live demonstration of the prototype, software testing and discussions and feedback from participants.