A three-day workshop took place in Kumba ahead of construction works in November.

Youths along Kumba-Mamfe notably from Kumba III, Konye, Nguti and Upper Bayang council areas, in the South West Region, have been promised employment when the construction of the Kumba-Mamfe road effectively commences in November 2014.

They were given the assurance at the end of a three-day planning workshop organised by the International Labour Organisation, ILO, last week on the Technical Assistance to Youth Employment Component of the Kumba-Mamfe Road Development Project.

Opening the workshop, the SDO for Meme, Koulbout Aman David, recalled that during a recent workshop in Kumba following the signature of the loan agreement on the construction of the road, one of the principal recommendations was to review the modalities of the implementation of the sub component ‘initiative for the employment of youths.’

On his part, the Director of ILO, for Angola, Cameroon and Sao Tome and Principe, Tomas Da Vera Cruz, said the ILO, is acting in response to the new approach of the African Development Bank. He maintained that the Kumba-Mamfe road is a giant project which includes the construction of the road and infrastructure like health centres, schools, markets and community halls attached to it thus the employment opportunities will be numerous.

Talking to CT, the National Coordinator of the ILO, Technical Assistance to Youth Employment Component of the Kumba-Mamfe Development Project, Simon Bernard Toum, hinted that the employment chapter devoted to the ILO within the project is aimed at creating in the Region a group of persons with the necessary competence for planning, execution and evaluation of youth insertion programme with high employment coefficient in infrastructure and agriculture.

In this light, at least 200 youth from the affected councils will be the final beneficiaries of the project. Two companies, China Communication Construction Company Ltd, CCC, and Jiangsu Provincial Transportation Engineering Group, received the deal to construct the road worth FCFA 54.6 billion.

While CCC is expected to handle the first phase of the construction of 100 km to the tune of FCFA 32.6 billion, Jiangsu Provincial Transportation Engineering will pocket over FCFA 22 billion for the second phase consisting 46.8 km. When CT visited the road recently the companies were busy construction their equipment pool site and residential areas and making frequent patrols of the road ready getting set for the November kick-off.