Beneficiaries hail NEF Citizen Graduate Employment Programme.

The beneficiaries voiced their appreciations during a tour to the sites where the they are undergoing training.

Speaking to media practitioners during a tour to the various sites, graduates presently enrolled under the programme on internship at the road and building construction company, BUNS, hailed the NEF for putting in place the programme. They said the programme has so far permitted them to gaine more skills in their various fields of learning.

According to Ndangoh Miracle, a graduate from the National Higher Polytechnic Institute of Bamenda, who is one of the beneficiaries of the PED-Ci programme, she has gained much since she was admitted in the programme in November.

“At the level of this site managed by BUNS, I have been able to gain so much. I have been given task like construct lockers which my team and I did in three months. After that, I was given another task to construct the gutters and the rams,” Ndangoh said.

The young engineer added that the task given them at the level of the site is done under the supervision of the senior engineer.

“I appreciate the training BUNS is giving us and I am sure that at the end of this programme, we will be able to get our contracts if BUNS decides to retain us, we know we are going to be big engineers but if this is not done then we will either create our own small companies or look for jobs in other companies,” Ndangoh said.

Like her, Ngo Bea Annette Mustella, an intern at the BUNS company for 14 months as administrative assistant, has equally hailed the programme.

She said it has given her the opportunity to not only match theory with practice, but equally acquire new skills in domains such as archiving.

The skills, she said, will enable her know where and how documents are placed such that when any document is needed, she can easily trace and sort them out. 

At the level of BUNS, Ngo Bea noted that she has been able to work as secretary, skills she lacked before she was admitted for the programme. 

Ohandja Eloundou Evariste, an electrical engineer on his part, noted that thanks to the project, they have acquired new skills and learned not only to be responsible but equally to be punctual, take the lead and equally work under pressure.

“So far the training has been wonderful and we want to use this opportunity to thank NEF and its partner, BUNS, for giving us the opportunity to acquired skills in our domain of expertise,” Eloundou said.

NEF official evaluates programme

According to the Interim Director of Operations and Development at the NEF, Landry Emale, the programme has benefitted some 2,213 graduates.

Of this number, he said some 371 of them that have been able to sign a contract with 123 companies where they were assigned to.

The training, the official added, last two years during which graduates on internship are expected to have gained enough knowledge that will permit them to be useful in the development plan of the country.

He noted that since January 2024, some 459 graduates have been enrolled and are presently carrying out internship in their partner companies with 72 of them already employed and have signed a contract. 

“At the launch of this programme, our task was to enrol 75,000 young graduates in the next three years and place in companies. But given the present situation, even though we are yet to attain this figure, we remain confident that things will change,” Emale said.

The PED-Ci, he said, is an improved version of the Graduate Employment Programme developed in 1992 with the aim of boosting massive job placement of young graduates in the country.

He equally used the opportunity to call on company to join the programme that seeks to fight against graduate unemployment so they could join the race to assist the government in its fight against youth unemployment in the country.

On company’s eligibility to join the programme, the Deputy Director of the Central Branch of NEF, Zock à Biscene Elise Noël, noted that the concerned company need to have an accreditation request which is gotten from the NE.

After the accreditation, he said they will proceed by evaluating the company’s capacity to meet the requirement to be part of the PED-Ci programme. The requirement, he said, includes finding out if they have tools to be able to receive graduates as the programme associates training and employment.

According to Elise Noël, when the companies meet the request needed, the NEF will in return get into its database to search graduates that meet the demands of the client.

BUNS Managing Director hails programme

According to the Founder and Managing Director of BUNS, Njong Eric, the PED-Ci programme is a very interesting programme put in place by the government through the NEF to support young unemployed graduates.

“I think that since we got into the programme last year, we have young graduates whom we have employed and for now, there are 37 graduates presently that are being trained in the company,” Njong stated.

The graduates, he said, after several months of training are doing well. He said many are really enthusiastic and want to learn more skills.

“It is a very good programme because on one hand, the government gets graduates out of the streets to companies and on the other hand the companies get tax benefits from the fact that they are employing young graduates. I think it is a win-win situation,” he said.

He used the opportunity to encourage, especially private companies that can afford to train young Cameroonians to federate forces with NEF and contribute in their own way to bring up younger Cameroonians.

“Imagine that we have 1,000 companies and each of these companies take 10 young graduates; we will be taking 10,000 graduates from the streets. So, I think it is a very important programme,” Njong said, adding that this should be “an opportunity for bigger companies to join as their own way to support the nation and the youth who are the leaders of tomorrow”. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3207 of Friday August 23, 2025