ENABLE Youth Cameroon back on track
The Cameroonian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER), Gabriel Mbairobe, and the IITA-Cameroon Country Representative Cargèle Masso signed an amendment to the agreement on youth vocational training in agricultural entrepreneurship and Agri-business (ENABLE Youth Cameroon) on 30 October. The event took place in the conference hall of the MINADER in Yaoundé in the presence of partners, agricultural stakeholders, and the press.
Displaying the signed agreements: Cargele Masso, IITA Country Representative in Cameroon (left) and Honorable Mbairobe Gabriel, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
With this amendment, the State of Cameroon, through MINADER in its capacity as contracting authority of the Agricultural Value Chain Development Project (AVC_DP), and IITA reaffirm their commitment to pursue more intensively the implementation of the key activities of the Program, which is the component 3 of the AVC_DP. This amendment also improves the basic management conditions of the Youth Agri Business Incubation Centers (YABICs) and puts the Program back on track. This gives IITA independence in the management of the Program, particularly in the fiduciary and administrative aspects.
Months of financial constraints impacted progress and led to the slowdown of key activities at the YABICs. The signed amendment will address these pitfalls hindering the implementation of the Program and allow the immediate resumption of activities. For this purpose, a corrective plan to get the train back on track and a six-month emergency plan have been drawn up to guarantee smooth continuity and the achievement of the Program’s objectives.
Group photo.
In addition to the production of these operational documents, the Program Coordination Unit will hold participatory meetings with the managers of the host institutions of the YABICs to offer better living conditions to aspiring agripreneurs. The Coordinators of the YABICs, who are the administrative managers of incubation centers, and Aspiring Agripreneurs, who are the essence of the Program, will be the main target of this emergency communication set-up.
This amendment is a real boost for the Program because it will permit the activities’ serene finalization. During the next six months, the EYC Coordination Unit will work at a sustained pace to close the incubation cycle of the first cohort and finalize the recruitment process for the second batch.
