Yaounde: SMEs ministry equips managers of small businesses, senior citizens with new skills.

It had as aim to enhance entrepreneurship skills among senior citizens. 

The workshop targeted veterans and retired workers with the goal to spark their interest in revenue generating activities and present incentives to fast-track their transition into a new professional path.

Speaking at the launch, Minister Bassilekin III said older people are not very inclined to set up businesses although they are a major source of new businesses. 

He said it is important to get this segment of society more involved in businesses, as they have all the time they need to set up and grow a business.

According to statistics from MINPMEESA, structures owned by senior citizens, mostly veterans, represent only 19.20% of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, SMEs in Cameroon in 2023, that is 3,774 SMEs out of 19,651.

According to the minister, the goal of his ministry is to increase the percentage of SMEs owned by veterans to 36.8% by 2030. 

This, the minister added, is prescribed in the National Development Strategy 2020-2030, SND30, the reference framework for the implementation of the second phase of Cameroon’s Vision 2035.

Workshop objectives

The workshop had as objectives to provide the actors of the entrepreneurial ecosystem with the necessary tools to improve the management of their structures with a view to increasing their performance, encouraging the creation of new ones, and encouraging seniors to reconvert to entrepreneurship.

Specifically, 165 participants were drilled on business incubation structures, the regulatory framework governing the incubation activity, business models to make their activities sustainable, and the corporate culture in Cameroon.

They also learned about risk management, business plan formulation and marketing strategies, taking into consideration digital technologies.

Financial institutions and various development partners were also invited to edify entrepreneurs on their interest in supporting the financing of newly created companies in Cameroon.

Enter participants 

Among the participants of the workshop was the head of a Common Initiative Group, CIG, based in Tignère, Faro and Déo Division in the Adamawa Region, Mohamadou Mustafa, a veteran in his sixties.

According to Mustafa, the workshop gave him an opportunity to share his experience and learn from other participants.

“We produce, process and market milk,” he explained, adding that he has been running this business, inherited from his parents, since 1985.

Mustafa said today, he is a blossoming businessman at the head of a 50-man CIG, and is proud of his achievements.

Minister Bassilekin III reiterated that inspiring success stories like that of Mustafa are what he wants to see multiplied. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3169 of Monday July 15, 2024