Cameroon: President Biya calls on the youth to engage in agriculture and digital economy

President Biya has revealed to the youths that efforts over the past few years have started paying off despite the fact that government’s capacities to create jobs have been crippled by external factors related to the external environment and some domestic red tape. A beaming head of state noted that the role of the youth in economic development was one of the major concerns of his ruling CPDM party. He urged the entire nation to resolutely mobilize and support the numerous initiatives undertaken by young people in the country in diverse fields. Biya, 83 hinted that  the Yang Philemon Government should systematically and effectively continue setting up appropriate infrastructure, but also cleaning up and properly regulating this key sector in the interest of the national economy and the development of youth employment. President Biya added that public or private training institutions are called upon to fully play their role in identifying new trades. The Cameroonian dictator said large enterprises and other public and private entities should set the example by progressively carrying out their own digital switch over. 

In a speech described by many as empty, Mr Biya also noted that financial institutions definitely stand to benefit by developing specific programs to support youth-initiated projects in this new economy and that it is through such collective commitment that Cameroon will be able to rise to the challenge of digital transition. With age telling on him, President Paul Biya dabbled to defend his failed leadership saying that the agriculture and digital economic sectors requires continues effort which included stepping up the professionalization of secondary education. Mr Biya told the Cameroonian youth that his government has opened three Pilot Centers of Excellence in Douala, Limbe and Sangmelima. The projects that cost about 21 billion CFA francs, will provide retraining and upgrading skills for senior technicians and other skilled workers.

Biya who remained defiant on the failures already recorded by his 2035 Emergence Plan recalled the launching of an extensive industrialization program outlined on 31 December last year which he again observed should create many job opportunities. The youths were told to courageously plunge and become the agricultural entrepreneurs describing it as a noble and rewarding trade in the so-called real economy.