The Inspector General in the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation chaired the programme launch.

Some 158 freshmen constituting the 2013-15 batches of trainees in the Buea-based Local Government Training Centre (CEFAM) have been honoured. A grandiose ceremony to receive them and launch the training period pulled dignitaries from the Republic of Benin, the supervisory Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation (MINATD) as well as local authorities of the South West Region.

The new batches of students who began classes on 27 May this year, streamed into the three Cycles of the Institution. As such, they embraced the three specializations of Cycle I namely: General Administration (GA), Finance and Treasury Management (FTM), and Management of Technical and Social Services (MTSS). Another batch went in for the Cycle II single stream to train as Intermediary Council Staff. Both Cycles I and II undergo a two-year course each. The Cycle III receives students occasionally for continual or refresher training. Redesigned to run intermittently till 2015, the Cycle III will benefit this time from the assistance of the Local Development Support Programme (PADDL) and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).

Tsimi Ngono Landry, Inspector General at the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, chaired the ceremony in Buea last 30 August. Local dignitaries flanked him to give the event the deserved pomp and pageantry. Among them was Professor Cheuwa Jean Claude of the University of Yaounde II who delivered a highly applauded discourse on decentralization in Cameroon.

Other visiting dignitaries included Robert Orou-Yorouba, Director of Benin's "Maison de Collectivités Locales" and Yarou Robert Théophile, Director of that country's nascent local government training centre (CEFAL). The Cameroon's Local Government Training Centre, reoganised by a 1977 presidential Decree, has kept to its mission as the lone institution in Cameroon that trains staff for the 360 councils in the country.