Retour sur les récents discours du chef de l’Etat à Douala et à Kribi
Election campaigns have come and gone but echoes of the pronouncements by President Paul Biya will certainly last for some time. Firstly, as incumbent Head of State, his campaign messages definitely went beyond mere declarations to include major policy statements on the wellbeing of Cameroonians.
Secondly, besides the “Major Accomplishments” that he announced during the 3rd Ordinary Congress of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, party that held from September 15-16, 2011, some concrete messages appeared obvious in his speeches in Maroua, Douala and Kribi with the youth as epicentre of such concerns.
At first sight, it would appear the youth have themselves to blame, if they fail to stand up after the Head of State has repeatedly told them to “be creative, innovative and daring.” Having said this at the CPDM Congress, Mr Biya came back on the statement in Douala, using the same words as if to state in unequivocal terms, government’s resolve to support the youth. But in what sounded as political realism, the Head of State outlined the stumbling blocks himself. They range from excessive administrative bottlenecks, to high cost and long time-frame for obtaining licences to open up businesses among others.
Transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructure as well as corruption, have equally been a major setback to business growth in the country, no matter how daring an entrepreneur could be. While indicating his determination to forge ahead, Mr. Biya also demonstrated an understanding of where the pitfalls may lie for any youthful exuberance being nurtured.
After all, the huge potentials in Cameroon only need the appropriate conditions, willing individuals and entrepreneurs to be transformed into semi-finished and finished products. For instance, to cite President Biya again, the country has a potential of 7.2 million hectares of arable land with only 1.8 million hectares under cultivation. The diversity of climate gives room for a wide variety of crops and in a country where 60 per cent of the population depends on farming, the prospects can be telling once the enabling environment is created. More so, agriculture presently accounts for 45,000 jobs in Cameroon and the President further indicated in Maroua that the sector is expected to create 165,000 more jobs by 2014 and 200,000 by 2016.
These are all signs that the huge army of the unemployed in the country needs to dig deep into and see what possibilities do exist for them to explore. Already, in Douala, Mr Biya was even more direct when he cited other sectors such as the New Information and Communication Technologies and other informal activities as outlets for the unemployed. This presupposes training and financial support in order to enable the youth to break through.
The recently created Small and Medium-size Enterprise Bank and the existing 412 micro-finance institutions are some of the measures that can offer a glimmer of hope in such a context of job scarcity. Last but not least, in the line of possibilities that should exist in Cameroon in the months ahead, are the mega projects which should take shape with the laying of the foundation stone of the Kribi Deep Seaport last Saturday October 8, 2011 in Kribi, South Region. Some 60 000 direct and indirect jobs are expected within the framework of such projects and such figures alone would appear as a panacea to unemployment problems in Cameroon. But this can be a utopia because those who are not ready with the necessary intellectual and material support cannot make it, no matter how good the prospects may be.
