For any body who wants to have a picture of the unemployment rate in Cameroon today, it suffices for you to take a leisurely stroll around the “province” neighbourhood in down town Yaounde and witness the number of persons that are struggling to certify documents to enroll for one or more of the recently advertised entrance exams into the public service.

A rough estimate puts the number of candidates who have already completed and submitted their application files at something over 10,000 for the centre region alone. Workers of the SDO’s office in Yaounde project that about double this number would have applied for the different concourse by the time the deadline expires in about a week’s time.

Reports from the 10 regional headquarters talk of the same hustle and bustle in front of DO’s offices, where prospective candidates are also struggling to certify required documents to constitute their application files.

It is believed that a total of over 100,000 candidates would compete for the 3500 places available.

The minister of public service signed several decisions recently advertising concourse into different corps of the public service. A total of 3500 candidates would be recruited after the exercise. The different corps include: customs, public works, social welfare etc.

For reasons you and I can guess the majority of applications are in the customs sector.