EMMI EMPIRE enjoins youth to embrace entrepreneurship.

She was speaking alongside other resource persons at a one-day youth empowerment summit, which took place at the organisation's headquarters in Center Questre in Bonaberi, Douala IV Subdivision.

The theme of the summit, drew inspiration from this year's theme of the 58th Youth Day: “Youth import substitution and economic patriotism for Cameroon’s Development”.

Attendees were drilled on how they could brave the odds as entrepreneurs, rather than traveling out of the country in search of greener pastures.

The grouping of youth group leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs were hungry to understand just what it takes to manage a business and what sort of business to embark on in the country.

Guest speaker, Ornella de Vinyle Nzouegou, an ambassador with Youth Connekt, in her presentations, capitalised on government policies put in place to accompany the youth through the sustainable development goals in financing of projects ranging from agriculture, handicraft and digital economy.

She went further to urge the youth not to feel discouraged despite the amount of challenges that they might face as they strive to stand out in the business world.

On his turn, Kum Leonard, Managing Director of My Media Prime television, expounded on the importance for youngsters to exercise patience in their life and trust God in the process of hustling.

The desire to leave Cameroon after failed attempts to getting into the public service, Kum equally identified as one of the push factors forcing a majority of the youthful population to dream leaving the country for the diaspora, where they are sure of making it. 

Moreover, he said, hard times, peer pressure and comparing with friends and family members are also involved. 

Looking beyond challenges 

However, looking beyond the challenges could equally help the current generation of young people to achieve success on home soil and not only traveling out of the country. 

Kum cited himself as an example of a successful youth without having a God parent or bribing anyone somewhere before getting to where he is.

Buttressing the points made by the quest speakers, Dr Erise Mary Dinga, founder of EMMI EMPIRE, re-echoed government's plans in encouraging innovative ideas to drive the nation to emergence. 

Cameroon, according to her, still has untapped potentials begging to be unlocked and it’s only with constructive ideas that this could be possible.

"There is no doubt there are some youths who are doing excellent job to the development of the nation, but there are few others dragging the nation behind in fulfilling its development aspirations," she said.

Thus, she said it is important for the young ones to begin nursing hope of a better tomorrow “by developing the love for professions in the technical field which are still very relevant in our society rather than going through the general educational cycle and ending up being jobless”.

Using her personal experience as an esthetician in a town like Bamenda where she was able to be saving 70,000CFA monthly because of her well-defined strategy to always avoid unnecessary spending, she said this has helped her get to where she is today. 

Telling her story, was her own way to inspire the younger generation to stop putting so much attention to things of no value.

Noting that, going to Europe doesn’t guarantee a better future for everyone particularly the lazy ones who perhaps might be thinking milk and honey is found in Europe, taking the risk traveling through the Mediterranean Sea en route to Europe, Dr Erise Mary Dinga discouraged such ventures  saying "it's not worth it".

She said though pressure might be very high from families and some youth often fall into depression seeing friends already successful the solution might not necessarily be traveling out of the country, but rather redefining purpose in the society. This, she said, could just be the right option to adopt by the youth for the sake of posterity.