When gov’t fails to respect promise on job creation.

15/06/2023

Of the over 100,000 graduates churn out from the various universities in the country every year, their dream ambition is to have a government job. 

This week, the Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, Joseph Le, announced that only 2,685 will be recruited this year.

It is a drop into the ocean given the whopping number of university graduates who generally scramble for the positions which are mainly offered through public competitive examinations. Such tests have over the years been criticised for being smeared with corruption, influence-peddling and tribalism.

During his traditional address on Youth Day last year, President Paul Biya said "thanks to the youth employment promotion included in the Priority Action Plan 2030, 600,000 jobs are expected to be created annually with the involvement of regional and local authorities".

Government, which is the highest employer in the country, has now announced it will employ less than 3,000, which is an insignificant figure compared to the promise made by President Biya last year. 

It is grossly less than one percent of what the Head of State had envisaged, which leaves a bleak future for the teeming youth graduating from universities and post primary institutions each year.

The government had expected that the Three-Year Youth Plan would enable the financing of 8430 projects, but the reality remains farfetched.

Even before the plan, given the youth unemployment issue which remains a time bomb, the Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo, had said that "in 2016, the Finance Law of the Republic of Cameroon introduced incentives for companies that recruit young people by exempting them from payroll deductions and employers' contributions. Thanks to this measure, the para-public, the private sectors recruited 1,500 young higher education graduates between 2016 and 2020".

However, compared with the number of young people graduating from universities every year in the country, and President Biya's promise, the recruitment still pales into insignificance. 

According to government statistics, between 2017 and 2018, 112,615 students graduated from universities under the Ministry of Higher Education. 

That does not include those from some 226 private universities or other institutions ranking as such, which could triple the number of yearly graduates seeking employment.

We at The Guardian Post recognise the partnerships concluded between the country's universities and companies aim at professionaling training and provide tax exemptions to companies that allow young graduates to get their first professional experience.

The partnerships provide that "companies that offer 35 graduates a permanent or fixed-term contract for their first jobs are exempted from tax and employer's charges on salaries paid to these young people, except for social security contributions".   

Both the North West and South West Regions have been declared risk zones and tax free incentives offered to new companies employing from more than five people. 

But it appears no investors are taking the risks.

Again, according to the Budget Policy Paper for the period 2021-2023, “the map of public higher education provision in Cameroon has remained unchanged, with 11 state universities, 226 private higher education institutes and three specialised institutions”.

Taking the two academic years into account, the total number of students enrolled in the training structures, both public and private, increased by 7.3%. 

From 295,058 students regularly enrolled in 2017, this number rose to 316,631 students by the end of the 2018 academic year. 

No current statistics which obviously will swell the numbers are available. 

Higher institutions of learning keep sprouting up which is applauded. 

The number of graduates keep soaring while sadly the number of government jobs can't and will never catch-up.

Thus, youth unemployment remains a hot potatoe in the mouth of the CPDM government. 

As President Biya has told them time and again, "professionalisation or training, as the case may be, is a prerequisite to resolving the problem of youth employment. Emerging countries began by putting in place an efficient education system and urged their youth to acquire knowledge that is indispensable for rising to the level of the best".

But do the 226 private plus 11 state universities and other higher institutions align their training towards professionalism and entrepreneurship?
Even if the graduates have professional training for a competitive market place and job creation, is the environment conducive for profitability?
Are the economic infrastructure and amenities like roads, railway, communication, electricity and water sufficient and affordable?

Despite all the shouting rhetoric about professionalising education and tilting it towards professionalism, the reality remains a cant.

Speaking at an event to launch a digital tool that links employers and job seekers last year in Douala, Minister Issa Tchiroma of Employment and Vocational Training, attributed soaring unemployment to the current system of higher education. 

He said parents send their children “...to study History, Geography, Modern Letters, Greek or German languages, and so on. They will come out with those degrees, but they will never have jobs. Never!...If your diploma does not open doors in the labour market, you have to put it aside and get the technical or vocational training the market wants”.

He was right. Emphasis should not only be on professionalising education and job creation. 

Government must provide an environment that is enticing for business, free of corruption and discourage the notion that each graduate should only aim at getting into the civil service as the only road to success in life.