Entrepreneurship: Cameroon to Host International Summit in November

Gilbert Ewehmeh, Director of YES

The towns of Yaoundé and Bamenda will this November play host to an important summit on entrepreneurship and job creation that is expected to group participants from over 6 countries notably the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, United States and Canada. The event was announced in Yaoundé, Friday October 4 in the presence of the Turkish Ambassador to Cameroon during a press conference organized by the Youth employment Service (YES Cameroon).

For four days (Nov 18th-22nd) participants including government officials, policy makers, diplomatic missions, business executives as well as leaders of civil society organizations will acquaint themselves with innovative job creation initiatives and share best practices in delivering skills for cost effective job policy measures.

Presentations at the summit will focus on issues such as how millions of jobs can be created in the next decade,the role of entrepreneurship and social enterprise in the society as well as how to ensure participation and empowerment of the youth and a lot more.

Speaking at the start of the press conference, the Executive Director of YES Cameroon, Gilbert Ewehmeh said the purpose of the summit is to inspire young people through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self –starters and innovators in their communities. The Executive Director noted that participants at the summit will benefit from the various presentations to be delivered by experts from some foreign countries - knowledge which he maintained will greatly impact their lives in the areas of job creation. Mr. Ewehmeh was categorical that young people need to be educated on how to create jobs for themselves and not to sit on their laurels and wait on government to offer them jobs. He said the theme of the summit which is “Improving and scaling up initiatives towards youth employment” was carefully chosen to shape the minds of youths who rely only on government for employment.

Gilbert Ewehmeh recounted that since 2007, his NGO has been instrumental in the field of capacity building with immense successes recorded. However; he said the support of other stakeholders like the government is indispensable in the process: “Since we started in 2007, we have been able assist young people financially and with productive skills in many fields. We think with the support from our partners like the Turkish embassy and the British High Commission, we will go a long way. Our achievements are evident”, he noted.

On his part, the Turkish Ambassador to Cameroon, Omer Faruk Dogan noted that Cameroon is a blessed country with abundant resources which if well harnessed, will create thousands of jobs for the country. He gladly said his country through the embassy in Cameroon is ready to fight youth unemployment through the win-win relation they share. To him, ongoing giant construction projects like dams and seaports are avenues that can create jobs for young people and with the fertile nature of Cameroon’s soil that supports the growth of many crops and plants, it becomes easy to put an end to the rising rate of unemployment in the country. Omer Faruk equally hailed YES for bringing up such an initiative in organizing a summit on entrepreneurship which to him will play a great role in supporting the efforts of young people to become self-reliant.