Minister Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa said the incubator will promote economic growth.

The Advanced School of Economic and Commercial Sciences, ESSEC, of the University of Douala, now has a nursery to train young entrepreneurs in fields like Audit and Management Control, Financial Management and Accounting, Human Resource Management, and International Trade and Transport.

At the inauguration by the Minister of Small and Medium-Size Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicraft, Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, the Director, Emmanuel Kamdem, expressed satisfaction with the gift of 15 high-speed desktop computers in the incubator, all connected to required networks. The centre will facilitate training, research and enhance development, the Director noted. The nursery and mentors will follow-up young entrepreneurs, especially vision bearers in project creation, management and enterprise running.

It was also a moment for Emmanuel Kamdem to appreciate the Minister for offering a subvention of FCFA 150 million to ESSEC, destined for project development and finance. In the presence of the Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo and the Rector of the Douala University, Prof. Dieudonné Oyono, Minister Etoundi Ngoa said the nursery will enable students to create and manage their own enterprises easily.

Before now, the Minister said, students graduating from such professional schools were given on-the-job training to gain experience and to be efficient. Upon graduation, he added, the young entrepreneurs will be up to the task to competently work in enterprises, or be their own employers.

One of the major challenges in most countries today is youth unemployment. Statistics show that about 54 per cent of Cameroon’s population is made up of youth. Thus, the putting in place of entrepreneurship nurseries in the Sahel Institute in Maroua later this year, and in Dschang in 2016, will help solve the unemployment problem.

This will not only create wealth, but also generate employment and render the economy more competitive and modern. Minister Etoundi Ngoa therefore encouraged students to work harder in order to become outstanding, dynamic and competent entrepreneurs, capable of contributing to the country’s emergence.