Inhabitants are involved in many paid and money-making businesses to meet their daily needs.

If there is one country on the African continent that can be described as a land of plenty, Cameroon certainly deserves the title as it is considered the breadbasket of the region. In spite of the abundance local foodstuffs, inhabitants in the country say they still need to go an extra mile in various formal and informal jobs to be able to attain their basic needs in health, education, lodging and feeding.

Nowadays, Sylvie B. Says, working in the public service of Cameroon is not the ultimate means to meeting basic needs in one’s life. As a civil servant with the Ministry of Secondary Education, Sylvie is involved in commercial activities such operating a snack bar and the sale of assorted dresses for men, women and kids, amongst other things. Sylvie is not the only civil servant involved in such commercial business. Mayang B. another civil servant operates a shop which sells all sorts of household items as well as clothing. Mayang says benefits collected from her shop enable her to properly feed her family and get a better lodging. There are also some civil servants, mostly women, who have even transformed parts of their offices into business places with the display of items such as sweets, fried flour knots and biscuits At times, bags of clothes and shoes are kept in the boots of their  cars ready to be shown to whoever is interested.

Besides the sale of goods, some civil servants are also involved in different activities such as cab driving and the agricultural sector with the cultivation of different types of food stuffs. Most of them say although involved in the formal sector, they are obliged to try their hands in   diversified activities to be able to meet up with the daily challenges of making ends meet. The situation with those in the informal sector is not different. Jean Pierre Ondoa is a tailor and musician at the same time. During the day, Jean Pierre spends his time sewing dresses around the Abattoir neighbourhood in Yaounde, and at night, he sings in various cabarets in town, all in a bid to increase his source of income.

Perpetua C who is a hair dresser is also involved in petty trading and call box, all in a bid to make more money. According to Perpertua, money earned from the many businesses she carries out enables her to fairly feed her children and send them to school. Getting a good accommodation and clothing for her family is far-fetched because the money is limited. Another Yaounde inhabitant, Sylvain Mekontchouo who is a petty trader says even the money to expand his business and try his hands in other businesses is not available. As such, he continues to live a hand-to-mouth life in one of the slumps around the city of Yaounde.