The Ministry of Small and Medium-size Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicraft in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development is organizing a series of training programmes for entrepreneurs from the East and West Regions.

Over 22 start-uppers started meeting in Yaounde yesterday July 25, 2016, to improve management skills as part of the Integrated Capacity-Building Programme, EMPRETEC.

The Inspector General in the Ministry, Prof. Agwara, sitting in for Minister Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa, stated that improving competitiveness among SMEs, promoting private initiatives, facilitating enterprise creation procedures as well as access to funding was government’s priority. Linking local and foreign enterprise promoters through technical and financial partners to boost the sector was mutually beneficial.

Participants will till August 6, 2016, receive lectures to better handle their businesses. Well managed SMEs are guarantors of economic growth, he recalled. He said motivating and strengthening entrepreneurial talents, not on traditional but modern skills, were the basis of the training.

The EMPRETEC programme focuses on promoting the creation of sustainable support structures that help promising entrepreneurs, build innovative and internationally competitive SMEs.

The training creates workshop bonds, which are instrumental for business growth and partnering, and for building a critical-base of competent and committed entrepreneurs.

They become the driving force of the their projects and ensure the successful implementation of innovation, technology, management, partnership, exporting, information, financing and networking for sustainable SMEs.

Over 135 local entrepreneurs have been trained since 2015 by the EMPRETEC programme and 122 of them have been certified since it went operational.