15th July, 2023
The African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a €63.09 million loan to Cameroon to promote entrepreneurship and improve skills to match industry needs.
Multinational partners, the private sector and the Cameroonian government will contribute approximately €2 million to the project cost, estimated at €64.93 million.
The project covers five of Cameroon’s regions — Centre, Littoral, South, Southwest, and Far North.
It is designed to improve skills and encourage entrepreneurship and youth and female employment in construction, transport, energy, agro-industry, ICT, and the green economy.
Specifically, the project will directly strengthen 12 training centers and nine public and private entrepreneurship support facilities.
A lack of skilled human resources in Cameroon threatens the country’s industrialisation process and the development of its economic growth.
The project aims to get the private sector in Cameroon – in tandem with the government – involved in key structural measures: building technical and vocational training infrastructure and strengthening the capacity of stakeholders and the education system.
The private sector will contribute through three levers: the delegated management of vocational training centers, the establishment of a Vocational Training Development Fund and the funding of private initiatives backed by the Youth Project Development Support Mechanism, and the creation of a network of business incubators operating within promising sectors.
This should result in a greater quality of learning properly suited to the job market. It will promote self-employment and professional integration for young people, especially in the targeted growth sectors, and strengthen the institutional capacities of technical and professional stakeholders.
Two of the five regions in the project area have been affected by conflict: the Southwest (Anglophone Crisis) and the Far North (Boko Haram terrorist attacks).
The project will benefit 7,350 young people in apprenticeships by improving training courses to meet the job market’s needs, and 1,225 young entrepreneurs or project leaders in the five regions, who will be enrolled in an incubation program until they start their businesses.
The project will also significantly impact Cameroon’s socio-economic development. It could generate 28,000 additional jobs by 2050 (an average of 1,120 per year between 2027 and 2050).
Source: AfDB