Youth socio-professional integration: Biya tasks gov’t to create Guarantee Fund for Young Entrepreneurs.

The fund will be tailored to specially finance projects initiated by the Cameroonian youth in the Diaspora. Before making the declaration, President Biya stated that “the State is taking action to promote the requisite entrepreneurship culture for youth empowerment”.

He added that the Special Three-Year Youth Plan which he prescribed in 2016, “has already enabled the financing of over 11,000 projects and generated close to 35,000 direct jobs for an overall cost of 20 billion FCFA”.

Biya stressed that creating the fund will be a vehicle to inspire young Cameroonians who have projects that need funding.

“It is a guarantee for young project carriers”, the Head of State stated, explaining further that the guarantee fund will allow the beneficiaries to raise financing on financial markets or obtain it from local banks.

Code-named SMEs Credit Guarantee Fund, FOGAPME, its implementation has been under consideration for the past 10 years, but would certainly see the light before the end of this financial year.

It should be recalled that on December 11, 2012, government launched a call for expression of interests to hire a consultant who will carry out the project’s implementation study.

Biya is said to have announced in 2022 that last year, resources were mobilised to realize the project. He also indicated that the draft business plan for the project was validated by the National Economic and Financial Committee, chaired by the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze.

To reach full youth employment and the economic insertion of women, especially young girls, the government is also embarking on intensive vocational training.

This strategy, it is hoped, should lead to increasing the local transformation of natural resources/local products and the development of the manufacturing sector, as a prelude to beefing up industrialisation of the national economy.

Furthermore, the involvement of young persons and women in the development of the nation´s private sector, government envisages, would constitute a great opportunity for all Cameroonians to reap the benefits of the newly launched Africa continental free trade area, AfCFTA.