Sunday 15 December 2019

My Experience At The Social and Inclusive Business Camp (SIBC) and EMERGING Valley

It was an intense week of activities from November 30th to December 5th, 2019. I was invited by the French Agency for Development (Agence Française de Développement) and  Fondation La France S'engage for an exciting and rigorous boot camp training and accelerator program for start-ups in Marseille, France.


Le Cloitre

Marvella Odili at Le Cloitre

Marvella Odili at Le Cloitre farm

Marvella Odili and Louise Clement, Program Manager, Afghanistan Libre

Marvella Odili with Kofoworola Oyeleye
Marvella Odili at Emerging Valley

Marvella Odili (R) with Kofoworola Oyeleye, Founder/Director, Iyin Creative at Musee Des Regards du Provence




Marvella Odili

Marvella Odili
I joined more than 50 participants from all over Africa to receive training and mentorship at the Social and Inclusive Business Camp (SIBC) from world-class experts including Isabelle Hoyaux, Founder of Scalechanger, Isadora Bigourdan, team leader at SIBC, Erik Hersman, CEO of BRCK, Tomi Davies, President of African Business Angel Network, Sarah Toumi, Director - General of Acacias for All, Clement Uwajeneza, Country Director, ANDELA, Rwanda, Camille Linquier of African Management Institute, Veda Sunassee, Dean and Founder of African Leadership University and a host of others on leadership, pitching of business ideas and scaling up of social enterprises.

Marvella Odili making a short presentation

Leadership development sessions

Team-building sessions

Sessions during Start-Up Clinic

Marvella Odili with Veda Sunassee (R) Director and Dean of African Leadership University

Sarah Toumi, Co-founder/Director, Acacias for All (Matron of the event)

At the end of the training, all participants were awarded certificates which were presented by Christophe Itier, the French High Commissioner for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Bertrand Walckenaer, AFD's Associate CEO.

Participants of SIBC

Emerging Valley 2019
From 4th to 5th December, rendezvous was at EMERGING Valley at Aix-de-Provence, Marseille, where 1,350 participants, 130 speakers, 140 start-ups, 40 big investors from 45 countries came together to discover the new champions of tech innovation from Africa and the Mediterranean as well as to network. It was a fantastic collaboration linking Africa and the Mediterranean to Europe.

Cecile Lapenu, Director, CERISE

Eric Hersman, Founder/Director, BRCK

Clement Uwajeneza, Country Director, ANDELA, Rwanda (Patron of event)

Isadora Bigourdan, Team leader at SIBC
The speakers included Bosun Tijani, Founder of Co-Creation Hub, Nigeria, Rebecca Enonchong, President of Afrilabs, Cameroon, Ninon Duval, Director of Bond'Innov, France and Thomas Festerling of Greentech Capital, Germany. 
Eight participants of SIBC were given the opportunity to pitch their wonderful ideas and social businesses to investors and the audience. Winners of the Med'INNOVANT Africa competition were also awarded their prizes.

Diana Serra, Founder/CEO, Be Girl, pitches to investors and the audience


Pitching session

Pitching in action

Isadora Bigourdan introduces the participants of Emerging Pitch Session



Winners of Med'INNOVANT Africa are given their awards



Marvella Odili at the Marseille Stadium

EMERGING Valley, founded by Samir Abdelkrim, hosts the biggest tech event in the world. Suffice it to say EMERGING Valley 2019 was a huge success.
- Written by Marvella Odili, Founder/CEO, Save Our Needy

Thursday 12 December 2019

Marvella Odili Wins World of Difference Award

Marvella Odili, Founder/CEO of Save Our Needy was recently awarded the "World of Difference" Award by The International Alliance of Women (TIAW) in faraway Australia in recognition of her outstanding contribution in making "all the difference in the world" to the economic empowerment of women.


Marvella Odili

Marvella is a social innovator, humanitarian and Champion of women and girls' rights who has contributed to the economic empowerment of more than 4,000 marginalized women leading to the realization of their financial independence both in Nigeria and Benin since 2011. Big congrats to her!!!

Connecting Marginalized Women To Technology and Development




Apply NOW for Save Our Needy's women empowerment program which offers FREE training on graphic design, website building, animation, and digital marketing.

Send application stating why you want to participate in the program, your location and full contact details to info@saveourneedy.org

Project Location: Lagos and Adamawa.

Eligibility: Age 18-40

Duration of program: 8 weeks 

Proudly supported by Fondation La France S'engage (FFE).

This project aims to inspire and encourage women to innovate.

Technology is for all: beyond generations, beyond gender, beyond borders, beyond professional and social inequalities.

Deadline extended to December 23rd 2019.