Douala: Young entrepreneurs salute German cooperation’s massive support.

Young entrepreneurs, Marie-Josée Miasse of Mon Linge, an innovative laundry and café spot, and Hippolyte Nozawo Tchoffo who leads Chololaterie Nohi Enterprise, an enterprise specialised in the artisanal production and sale of chocolate, made the declarations in Douala on Monday.

This was during a visit to the two enterprises by a team from the German Cooperation in Cameroon. This was in the presence of journalists who have been touring development projects sponsored by the corporation in four regions of the country in the last 60 years.

The stopovers served as part of the eighth day of the two-week tour which began in the West Region last week and is scheduled to also cover the East and Center Regions.

Germany transforming entrepreneurial dreams 

Mon Linge’s Marie-Josée Miasse and Hippolyte Nozawo Tchoffo of Chololaterie Nohi received financial assistance worth some 5,000 Euros, approximately over 3.2million FCFA each from the German Cooperation via WID. 

The pair also got other material assistance from the institution in the last two years aimed at boosting their activities.

The two are part of the WIDU Africa scheme which is a regional project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the BMZ. The program has now expanded to cover thousands of beneficiaries.

It is implemented in Cameroon and five other countries on the African continent by the German development agency, the GIZ. It has as primary aim to promote entrepreneurship and job creation in Africa. 

Speaking to the press during Monday’s media tour, Marie-Josee Miasse, 34, and 37-year-old Hippolyte Nozawo, both lauded the German Cooperation for the scheme. 

They said it has led to the creation of close to 4,000 jobs in Cameroon through support offered to close to 2,000 projects.

According to the youngsters, the German Cooperation is a veritable partner in the promotion of entrepreneurship. Nozawo said he and Miasse are testimonies of the institution’s kindness. 

Nozawo’s Chocolaterie Nohi has seen its production capacity more than double. This is barely two years after it benefitted from the German Cooperation’s assistance via the WIDU scheme. 

He said his enterprise is now buoyant, expressing optimism that it will cover more ground in future.

“Since getting into contact with WIDU in 2017, five years after starting operations, we have benefitted from two subventions. The first enabled us to put in place a cold room which gave us the opportunity to move from producing 50 to 300 tablets of chocolate per hour. It boosted our activities in a manner that we never imagined,” Nozawo said. 

According to the Chocolaterie Nohi, chief, the young enterprise is still faced with several challenges. He cited notably those linked to access to quality and affordable packaging, competent human resources and financial barriers.

Nozawo won the first prize in the Agro-business category of the 2023 WIDU Awards. He said the enterprise remains grateful to the German Cooperation for helping the enterprise to break new grounds.

Nozawo told The Guardian Post that he is confident the bold steps that Chocolaterie has been taken thanks to the German Cooperation via the WIDU project will further open new opportunities.

“We produce at least 1million tone per month. We remain confident and are aiming to become the leaders in the artisanal production and sale of chocolate in Africa,” he stated. 

Mon Linge another success story 

Like Nozawo Hippolyte, Marie-Josee Miasse is ranked as one of the major success stories among the thousands of beneficiaries in the chain of the WIDU Africa project.

The soft-speaking entrepreneurial sensation said the German Cooperation has through the WIDU scheme placed her enterprise in the business world. 

She also said the Cooperation has helped the enterprise lay groundwork for more innovation. Mon Linge enterprise specializes not only in laundry but is also equipped with a WIFI system, a café and books. 

According to the 34-year-old, the features which are hardly always found in Cameroonian laundry business centers, offers customers a different experience. 

She said customers are among other things, given the opportunity to read free books and browse while waiting to be served. 

“We started with one machine but now we have three additional machines. WIDU also handed us bikes to facilitate access to our customers. So WIDU has hugely boosted our activities,” Miasse told pressmen. 

“The financing we got enabled us to acquire machines. We were also able to train a team of nine persons in the field of laundry. It equally helped in building our capacity, improving the quality of our services and operating capacities,” she added.

Other institutions visited 

The Monday lap of the tour took the delegation to some six enterprises, associations and institutions that have benefitted from the development-promotion efforts of the Cooperation.

The group visited the Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Un Monde Avenir. It is an association specialised among others things in championing the respect of human rights, combating discrimination. 

It also visited another organisation, Association Femme Dynamic, a group fighting for the rights of women, young girls and social cohesion.

The team also visited the Littoral Regional Health Promotion Fund, the revered structure in charge of the distribution of drugs and other medicinal products in the Littoral Region and Association Sante Scolaire SASCO. 

SASCO focuses on the fight against HIV and AIDS through the promotion of safe-sex practices and the rendering of medical services to those affected by HIV and AIDS. 

Entrepreneurs not lone beneficiaries of Germany’s largesse 

The area of entrepreneurship is not the lone sector benefitting from the development efforts of the German Cooperation in Cameroon. It covers four different pools including good governance and health. 

On Monday, several of the German institution’s projects in Cameroon were also visited. It was described by authorities as an indication of the immense importance of the country in Cameroon’s development.

At the visit to Un Monde Avenir and Association Femme Dynamic, both institutions said the German Cooperation has for years, cemented its space as a leading partner

The Executive Coordinator of Un Monde Avenir, Phillippe Nanga, said his organisation has for over 12 years, benefitted from a rich partnership with the cooperation.

This, he said, has led to millions coming in as financial and material supports from the institution to the Cameroonian structure. Its activities have covered at least 50 of the 58 divisions in the country in 21 years.

The Association Femme Dynamic, Tchamsi Phillipe, in charge of programs at the structure said has received 17 million as financial assistance.

At the Littoral Regional Health Promotion Fund, Dr Bikoti Joseph Marie, the administrator of the facility said its collaboration with the German Cooperation has spanned more than two decades.

He stated that the Cooperation was at the root of the setting up of the center. Dr Bikoti also disclosed that the group has received the sum of over 300million FCFA in the last few as assistance. 

This, he said, also includes support for the fight against COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3164 of Wednesday July 10, 2024