Some 36 high school students, who distinguished themselves in their different schools in the 2013/2014 academic year, were rewarded by the National Refining Company, SONARA, during last summer holiday with holiday jobs that were, at the end, complemented with stipends.

Of the 36 students, eight were from GBHS Limbe, eight from GHS Limbe, eight from GHS Batoke, eight from the SONARA College and four from GBHS Buea.

During a press briefing on October 1, at SONARA, the Director of Human Resources, Bouba Mohamadou, and the Director of Communication, Public Relations and Translation, Blasius Ngome, said the Refinery has been offering holiday jobs and internship opportunities to students over the years.

The case of the 36 was different in that, “These are students who never applied for any holiday job, had no relationship with anyone in SONARA and neither did the General Manager nor anyone had a hand in their selection,” Bouba and Ngome said.

“Within the framework of Promoting Excellence,” stated a release availed to reporters, “the GM of SONARA, Ibrahim Talba Malla, has offered 36 holiday job opportunities to students with the most outstanding performances in five schools in the Southwest Region, for the months of July and August, 2014.”

Unlike with other holiday jobs or internships where students had to apply before they were selected by SONARA, Ngome and Bouba told the press that, none of the 36 applied before they were taken. They indicated that the offer was a new initiative by the GM of SONARA aimed, strictly, at promoting excellence by offering an opportunity to those students that merit it to have a feel of the excellent work environment that SONARA offers.

“The purpose is, on the one hand, to enable these students acquaint themselves with the working environment so as to pave their way into the socio-professional world in future, as well as help the parents of these holiday job workers financially, through the substantial holiday job allowance given to them, to prepare for the 2014 school re-opening,” added the release.

One of the recipient students, Denzel Ngwane, from GBHS Buea who passed the GCE Advanced Level and is now headed for the University of Buea, told The Post by phone on October 2 that: “It was an amazing experience that we had during our stay in SONARA. Indeed, they gave us VIP treatment.” Expounding on the VIP treatment he said; “we were transported daily and free by bus to and from work and they offered us food and other amenities.”

Another recipient, Linda Nfor Mallah, a lower sixth student now in upper sixth in GHS Limbe said: “I really love the way I was received at SONARA. In fact, it was a nice place.”

As to those aspects of excellence which they experienced during their stay at SONARA, Ngwane, 19, said: “The workers in SONARA are very orderly and very time-conscious. The staffs here are very presentable.” The way they operate and the way they do their things show that it is really a place of excellence.”

Ngome and Bouba, during the press briefing, stated that these were just some of the traits of excellence and practices in SONARA. “The GM comes to work before it is 7.30 am and, on some days, leaves the office as late as 9.00 pm,” the stated.

While Ngwane intends to use the excellence largess from SONARA to help himself as he heads for the University of Buea, Linda Mallah said she was very thankful to SONARA “because what the GM did is really going to help me.”

SONARA, as explained during the briefing, supports education as part of its corporate social responsibility policy. Ngome indicated that SONARA is a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Buea and also a member of the UB Research and Development Fund.

SONARA assists schools such GBHS Limbe which they supported its creation, provides didactic material to different other schools. SONARA, also, has been of enormous service to many students from different universities in Cameroon and some from abroad who come often to carry out their industrial placement or internships.

During the press briefing, the humming of machines almost everywhere and workers, certainly technicians, clad mostly in their deep blue and pink overalls, were busy either checking one bolt here or checking on one machine or the other at another end. This was part of the multi-billion expansion project that is going on in SONARA.

The project aims at expanding SONARA’s production capacity and capability to enable the Refinery move from the refining of only light crude, as it does now, to the ability to refine heavy crude as well. Much of the light crude that SONARA refines is imported. The company will be able refine heavy crude when the modernisation project is completed.

From documentation made available to the press, the project, valued at some FCFA 620 billion, is near completion. The first phase is estimated at a cost of FCFA 220 billion while the second phase shall consume some FCFA 400 billion.

It is expected that when this project shall have been accomplished, more jobs shall be created, fuel sufficiency shall be guaranteed and there will be a general boost in the economy of Cameroon.

It is, ostensibly, for this reason that Talba Malla, as was disclosed, comes to office even before it is 7.30am and often goes home late. This mark of assiduity is one of the aspects Ngome and Bouba intimated that the GM wants SONARA to pass on to the young ones who have the ambition to make Cameroon a success story tomorrow.

Ngome and Bouba stated that the holiday job initiative, probably and depending on the means, shall be extended to schools beyond the Southwest Region.