New England Ville, Freetown, September 2025: The Orange Foundation, in partnership with TechMinds Sierra Leone, has introduced a Smart Student Application App aimed at digitizing and streamlining administrative and academic processes in tertiary institutions across Sierra Leone.
The launch took place on 2nd September 2025 at the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education’s Conference Room, Sababu Building, New England Ville.
Representing the Orange Foundation, Tindae Feike, Fablab Manager, explained that the Foundation—Orange’s NGO arm—focuses on three pillars: health, education, and youth & women empowerment. Through the Orange Digital Centre, students receive training in software development, robotics, and startup incubation. TechMinds, one of its incubated startups and winner of the Orange Social Venture Prize 2025, showcased its flagship product, the Smart College application.
Richlyn Kainekay Turay, Co-Founder of TechMinds, shared that the app was inspired by challenges students face in accessing timely academic updates. She described Smart College as an all-in-one platform supporting digital applications, admissions, tuition payments, attendance tracking, result processing, transcript generation, and graduation support. Already deployed at the Tonkolili District College of Health Sciences in Masanga, the app has won multiple awards, including the IPAM CEI Pitch 2025.
In her remarks, Fatmata Kaiwa, Director of Science and Technology at the Ministry, praised the innovation but underscored the need for institutional acceptance, integration with the Ministry’s MIS, and strong security safeguards. She called on TechMinds to ensure the system issues verifiable receipts, resists fraud, and aligns with the hybrid systems currently in use across universities.
During a live demonstration, James Bernard Turay of TechMinds showcased the admissions module, highlighting features such as secure payment PIN generation, bank and Orange Money integration, and application tracking from submission to enrollment. He also presented advanced tools including automated result verification, timetable scheduling, and a built-in learning management system.
TechMinds appealed for partnership, endorsement, and Ministry support, stressing that the Smart College platform could provide a centralized dashboard for monitoring higher education institutions, align with the Government’s Big Five agenda on technology and infrastructure, and create opportunities for institutions to secure funding for digital transformation.
Richard Williams, Ministry of Technical and Higher Education
