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Archipelago Project goes Operational in Cameroon

Three Hundred and Sixty Trainees on the Starting Bloc

After months of gestation, the Youth and Gender Connect Project, codenamed ‘Archipelago’ has gone operational in Cameroon. The programme is a European Union (EU) initiative to empower Africa youths and women to create jobs and contribute to the growth of the continent’s economy. The Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Crafts (CCIMC) was selected among several African institutions to host the project on behalf of Cameroon. The programme aims at training Cameroonian youths and women in agro-industrial transformation, entrepreneurship and motor mechanics. It will last for two years.

While launching the programme in Yaounde on Tuesday 1^st June 2021, the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, in the presence of other top government officials and diplomats, said the Archipelago programme fell in line with government’s “Train my Generation” initiative as spelt out in the National Development Strategy (SND-2030). The SND-2030 initiative seeks to reinforce Cameroon’s productive capacity in order to meet its target as an industrial nation by the year 2035. Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary was upbeat that the Archipelago programme would help limit the massive exodus of Cameroonian youths who have been streaming out of the country for greener pastures especially in Europe. He said his Ministry will work with other relevant government services to ensure the programme attains its results.

In his opening remarks, the President of the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, revealed that some three hundred and sixty (360) young Cameroonians would be trained in the selected disciplines. Honorable Christophe Eken likened the Archipelago programme to the CCIMC Pilot Incubation Centre (PIC) in Bwadibo, Douala where hundreds of youths have been trained in various disciplines notably agro-industrial transformation. The Archipelago programme he maintained, would be a booster to efforts by the CCIMC to contribute its own quota to building a credible work force capable of growing the Cameroon’s economy. Some eight (8) highly equipped specialized training centres have been earmarked in the Centre, West, Littoral and Adamawa regions to accommodate the trainees.

Sponsored by the European Union with support from the Chamber of Trades and Crafts (CMA), Pays de la Loire in France, the French Development Agency (AFD), the Permanent Conference of Francophone and African Trade Chambers (CPCCAF) and the French embassy in Yaounde, the Archipelago programme adds onto the numerous diplomatic strides made by the CCIMC in the recent past to win foreign support to boost Cameroon’s economy. The sister Chamber of Trades and Crafts of Pays de la Loire (CMA) will all along the programme, coach, mentor and provide technical assistance to the trainees. The Secretary General of CMA, Philip Seguin, expressed the readiness of his institution to get the job done and properly.

The occasion was attended among others, by the French Ambassador to Cameroon, the secretary General in the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (MINMIDT), other top government officials, a senior official of the French Development Agency, members of the CCIMC, the business community and some of the potential trainees.