E-agriculture: ICT University partners Cameroon Youth Council to foster youth employment.

The agreement was sealed in the presence of the top government officials including the Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, Mounouna Foutsou.

It was the Vice Chancelor of the ICT University, Professor Jean Emmanuel Pondi, who signed partnership on behalf of the Yaounde-based institution while the National President of the Cameroon National Youth Council, CNYC, Fadimatou Iyawa Ousmanou, did same for the state-created organisation.

The Vice Chancellor of the ICT University speaking shortly after signing the deal, described the partnership as “… more than just an agreement; it’s a pledge to shape a new generation of innovators and job creators”.

The ICT University e-agriculture programme, he said, aims to empower over 10,000 young individuals with the skills to integrate farming and technology. 

The president of the Cameroon Youth Council praised the ICT University for midwifing the initiative which she said will go a long way in helping young people combat the nerve-wracking unemployment in the country.

She described the e-agriculture project as timely before commending the founder of the ICT University for the initiative.

The programme was recently unveiled by the founder and President of the Board of Trustees of the ICT University, United States-based Professor Victor Mbarika.

The initiative which aims to revolutionize the agriculture sector through the use of digital innovations, was unveiled Saturday July 26 in Yaounde.

Co-named e-agriculture project, the programme was presented at the 2025 graduation ceremony of the ICT University.

The project which is set to officially kick off in October this year, has already been endorsed by the state of Cameroon through the Ministries of Higher Education and that of Agriculture. It has the international backing of the Lavras state university in Brazil.

Speaking while addressing attendees at the heavily attended graduation ceremony in Yaounde, Prof Victor Mbarika disclosed that: “We are launching what we call digital agriculture or e-agriculture where we will be bringing robotics, Artificial Intelligence to Cameroon for agriculture projects”.

The United States based Professor of ICT announced that: “We will have robots clearing hundreds of hectares of land in less than two minutes. We will have robots planting, harvesting…we will have amazing drones being used in agriculture because we have decided to let our youth know that agriculture is not a rudimentary hoe and spade thing. We are launching that programme in this country with the University of Lavras in Brazil fully supporting us”.

He said experts from Brazil will come to Cameroon, train people on how to use or repair the machines “it because we don’t want to be flying Brazilians here every time”.

“We are launching that project which will employ 10,000 youths in the next five to ten years. We are planning to invest between 5-10 billion FCFA in the project,” he then noted.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3541 of Friday August 22, 2025