It is in response to the Head of State’s announcement earlier this year of the creation of 350,000 jobs.

The National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development, NCSAPD, is stepping up efforts to create youth jobs and also boost civic awareness among young people. Speaking at a press briefing in Yaounde on Friday, June 19, 2015, the NCSAPD General Manager, Taossi, announced the training of 15,000 youth this year by his organisation.

While 9,000 of the number will be volunteers to receive training in livestock and fish farming, the remaining 6,000 will be students and other young people to receive training in civic awareness. The number of people to be trained will increase by 2,000 compared to 2014 for both volunteer farmers and youth civic awareness, Taossi stressed.

Volunteer farmers are expected to be people in good health, must belong to a group already carrying out some form of farming in their area of residence and should not be under any paid employment.

Meanwhile, registration forms can be collected from Divisional and Mayors’ offices as well as from Subdivisional Delegations of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries. On the other hand, those eligible for civic awareness training are secondary and high school students, young people in tertiary institutions, members of recognised associations and teacher training college students.

All of them must be between 17 and 21 years. The General Manager of the National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development explained that the training of more youth in civic matters was informed by a number of factors.

These include the low level of awareness on State and republican institutions, weak patriotic fervour, loss of positive traditional values and little attention being paid to human rights and liberty issues. Others are falling morals, juvenile delinquency, rising incidence of youth robbery and the tendency by young people to join terrorist groups.

Created under Law Number 2007/003 of July 13, 2007, the National Civic Service Agency for Participation in Development has as charge to contribute in rallying efforts for socio-economic development. It also promotes a sense of nationhood, citizenship, spirit of civic service and a culture of peace.