LocationsA new national innovation home opens on 9 July 2026, delivered by the Government of Sierra Leone with UNDP assistance, through its pan-African timbuktoo initiative, and hosted at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.
Where Sierra Leone's Young Innovators Will Build the Future: President Bio to Open UniPod Sierra Leone.
July 6, 2026
©UNDP Sierra Leone
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, 6 July 2026 - This Thursday, a new home for Sierra Leone's inventors, engineers, coders and entrepreneurs will open its doors at Fourah Bay College. The Government of Sierra Leone, together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through its flagship pan-African innovation initiative, timbuktoo and the University of Sierra Leone, will launch UniPod Sierra Leone on 9 July, with His Excellency Dr. Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, as Chief Launcher.
Step inside and the ambition is clear. Maker and design studios, 3D printers and prototyping benches, incubation space and mentors sit side by side, everything a young person needs to move an idea from a sketch to a working prototype, to a business. It is a space built for doing.
©UNDP Sierra Leone
“Sierra Leone is not opening a building, it is opening a platform where young people build the future.”
That is the message behind the launch. UniPod Sierra Leone gives the country's youth a space to design, build and scale solutions to the challenges they see every day and a stake in the innovation economy to make something bigger.
©UNDP Sierra Leone
As a University Innovation Pod (Unipod), it is delivered under timbuktoo, UNDP's flagship pan-African innovation initiative, with UNDP bringing the vision, investment and continental network, timbuktoo the model, and the Unipod the space where it all comes to life. The Government of Sierra Leone convenes the platform, and Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, the oldest university in West Africa, gives it a home.
Launched on the world stage at Davos in January 2024, timbuktoo is UNDP's bold bet on African talent: a continental network of University Innovation Pods and sector hubs designed to equip tens of thousands of young innovators and help their startups scale. Sierra Leone is among its founding countries and now joins a growing wave of UniPods lighting up campuses across the continent.
©UNDP Sierra Leone
On launch day, President Bio will unveil the plaque, cut the ribbon and tour the facility, meeting the innovators face to face. The exhibition will showcase youth-led projects spanning solar power and clean energy for farmers, plastic recycling and the circular economy, AI and digital tools built for local needs, and creative-economy startups. Launch week keeps the momentum going, with a media preview, a youth demo day of live pitches, and an ecosystem roundtable to turn the energy of the day into real commitments and a 100-day action plan.
Alignment with national and global goals
The initiative supports Sierra Leone's national priorities for youth employment, digital transformation and human-capital development, and advances the Sustainable Development Goals notably SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), while contributing to SDG 4 (Quality Education).
Media contacts
UNDP Sierra Leone - Communications Unit
Tanya Honnah, Communication and Partnership Analyst
Email: tanya.honnah@undp.org
Memunatu Suma, Communication Officer
Email: Memunatu.suma@undp.org
Notes to editors
About UniPod Sierra Leone
University Innovation Pods (UniPods) are timbuktoo’s campus-based delivery infrastructure, collaborative innovation spaces giving young people prototyping tools, mentorship and pathways to investment. They are operational in more than a dozen African countries and serve as the post-event home where hackathon teams continue to build.
About timbuktoo
timbuktoo is UNDP's flagship pan-African innovation initiative, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2024. It aims to transform Africa's universities into centres of innovation and to support youth-led startups by connecting governments, universities, investors and corporations through a continental network of University Innovation Pods (UniPods) and sector-specific innovation hubs. Sierra Leone is among the founding countries in the UniPod network.
About UNDP
UNDP is the leading United Nations organisation fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality and climate change. Working with a broad network of experts and partners in more than 170 countries, UNDP helps nations build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet. UNDP has been a partner to Sierra Leone since 1965.
About Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone
Founded in 1827, Fourah Bay College is the oldest university institution in West Africa and a constituent college of the University of Sierra Leone. As host of UniPod Sierra Leone, it anchors the platform within the country's academic, research and student community.