Save Our Needy: 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

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.