North West: Gov’t awards man with disability for fabricating egg incubator.

His relentless efforts in innovation through craftwork earned him an Excellent Award during the 8th edition of the International Craft Fair of Cameroon.

The fair was organised in Yaounde recently by the Ministry of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts, MINPMEESA.

With the invention of the incubators by Pa Sassa, locally hatched eggs are being stored for longer period without them getting bad. He manufactured the first incubators in 2006.

“I decided to fabricate this incubator to store locally hatched eggs because of the plight of inadequate storage facilities for eggs. Our community consume a lot of eggs given that most people rear fowls here. So, they will be able to preserve these eggs for long periods of time,” he told The Guardian Post in an interview.

According to Nkwenti Abraham, the community of Santa where the animal farm is located has other benefits.

“The farm provides farmers with fowl dropping which they use as manure in their farms,” Nkwenti says. 

“You also know how important local fowl eggs are to our local community, so the population of Santa gets them from our animal farm,” he added

The farm, he says, was set up in a bid to save the Santa community from the stress of going to other areas for these services.

About the farm & crafts works

Pa Sassa’s farm and arts work range from manufacture of the incubators, rearing of fowls, production of house and office equipment as well as photo lamination.

His passion for rearing of fowls and crafts work, saw in open the animal farm and arts workshop in the 1990s. Since then, he has been working hard to build a reputation for quality service.

“I have always loved arts work. I started doing arts while I was in primary school and a decided to construct this small farm to do my local production. Since then, my passion for arts has increased,” Pa Sassa stated.

Calls for gov’t support

Despite his strides, Pa Sassa beckons on government assistance to modernise the animal farm and expand the business in order to help train more youth in the locality. 

He says his plans to expand the business this far, aren’t bearing fruits as the labour force to produce in bulk is absent due to the fact that he lacks funds to pay employees. To him, this will reduce unemployment and idleness among young people in the area.

“It is a plea for government to support this initiative financially so that I can open up a modern workshop where I can recruit and train young Cameroonian and by so doing, it will create jobs…,” he explained.

He went on to add that: “Even as I await the support, I will remain focused to provide the highest quality services to my community, with the goal of expanding and providing job opportunities to the youths in my community,” Nkwenti detailed.

With one of his legs amputated, Nkwenti Abraham has not relented in his pursuit for excellence in craftsmanship. 

“Being disabled as you know, I receive support from my entire family my sons and wife assist me in the farm to do the work manually,” Sassa explained.

As he remains optimistic about the growth of his business, he equally believes that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will support him.

By Cyprain Bekhali (Journalism student on internship)

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3213 of Thursday August 29, 2024