Bafoussam: Care for Environment association, partners train girls on solar energy installation.

The participants were trained during a two-week workshop that took place recently at the Bafoussam City Council in the West Region. The training, organisers said, seeks to assist the young women to be at the heart of the solar energy transition.

According to the Honorary President of RIPREM, Célestine Ketcha Courtès, who doubles as the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, the training is in line with the vision of the President of the Republic, who has placed renewable energies at the heart of Cameroon's sustainable development. 

The training, she said, seeks to help young girls to become financially autonomous, as well as finding employment. 

“Today, green energy or solar energy is a niche within the framework of the SND30 and I am so grateful to the special funds for financing innovative projects, because this is an innovative project. We are very happy to see our daughters trained in the construction and maintenance of solar panels and fields. This will help to support Cameroon's vast construction programme using solar energy in our towns and villages,” Ketcha Courtès said.

The Secretary General of Care For Environment, Karivo Gabriel, pointed out that: “The training focused on understanding the basics of solar energy; the different types of solar systems that exist; the particularity of the autonomous solar electric system; mastering the different types of equipment like batteries, converters, regulators, panels, just to name but this few”.

The participants, he said, were schooled on the different stages of installation and sizing of a solar electric system; the operation and installation of a solar pumping system, advantages and constraints of solar energy and the maintenance of these solar installations.

“We can assure you that at the end of this training, each of these 100 young girls is now capable of installing solar panels and even a solar field. Many thanks to all our partners and to the godmother of this class of 2024, Minister Ketcha Courtès, for all her support,” Karivo said.

The participants, during the closing ceremony, gave brilliant practical demonstrations of the skills acquired. They equally expressed their satisfaction and gratitude to the association and its partners for the cutting-edge training which they have received.

According to CFE engineers, Nomgne Armel, Tapa Marcel and Kouhawa Moïse, who facilitated the training, the project for the implementation of Green Power Biotechnology, supported by their organisation, is a vast training programme for young people in green entrepreneurship, financed by the French Embassy.

For the training, closed to 2,700 applications were received and just 100 girls were selected from the various towns and regions to take part in the training.

The aim of the training, we gathered, is to prefect the skills of these young girls and make them ready for employment and even self-employment, in this rather innovative field of activity, rich in opportunities for Cameroon, which is increasingly going through an energy crisis. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3171 of Wednesday July 17, 2024