Getting a job in Cameroon, like elsewhere, is increasingly becoming difficult, especially for the youth who aspire for a better life.

 Recent data by the National Institute of Statistics indicate that the under-employment rate among youths of between 15 years upward is in the neighbourhood of 77.6 per cent (2014 figures). Many are said to be involved in informal activities. This is telling of the gravity of the situation.

The few gainfully employed ones are more in the administration and different State-owned structures owing to their quest for white-collar jobs. But recent developments, more so based on the enormous God-given resources in the country, are telling of a possibility of turning the sorry unemployment story round. It suffices to maximise new job opportunities.

Take agriculture for instance, the soil is fertile and the climate conducive. Almost everything can grow in Cameroon. Both the forest, savannah and Sahel areas of the country have specificities which favour an optimal growth of some crops. Improved agronomic research makes the growth of some, if not all, of the crops possible almost anywhere.

The same holds for other growth-induced and susceptible job-generating sectors like tourism, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and engineering, just to mention these.

Getting youth to transform these opportunities into jobs capable of giving them a living, likewise allowing others to live, would need more than simple talk. Government has a plethora of projects and programmes geared towards bringing these sectors to the limelight. But inhibiting factors staring those who have ventured into the sectors abound.

Agriculture, at least in a larger scale, absolutely needs sufficient land and a well-equipped and informed manpower. The land tenure system in the country is not the best for now coupled with the fact that almost everywhere, land is family-owned. There are also problems of farm-to-market roads as well as local processing which, as a matter of fact, must be resolved.

The country has technical schools almost everywhere for the training of engineers but insufficient infrastructure and teaching staff almost always compromise their efficiency. Developing tourism requires well trained and willing youth. Maximising opportunities in the ICTs sector demands state-of-the-art telecoms infrastructure still in short supply here at moment.  Maximising these opportunities entails surmounting challenges. Taking one and pretending not to see the other or trying to manage just to be seen to be doing something will lead the State and beneficiary youths nowhere. Quality and quantity jobs feature prominently in government’s development vision contained in the Growth and Employment Strategy Paper. Identifying job-prone sectors for the country’s future, like what government is doing, is good but maximising every opportunity the sectors offer by clearing existing and foreseeable obstacles in each of the sectors is advantageous. Only then can the sectors yield dividends!