The country’s Ambassador and MINEPAT signed two financing agreements in Yaounde on Friday December 20.

The government of France, through the French Development Agency (AFD) and within the framework of the French debt-relief and development contract, C2D, has pledged to support financial governance and youth employment in Cameroon.

France’s Ambassador to Cameroon, Christine Robichon, and the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT), Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, signed two agreements to this effect on Friday December 19, 2014.

The first one concerns a FCFA 320 million support programme to financial governance in the country for an efficient and judicious management of the budget. Meanwhile, the second involves about FCFA 10 billion destined for the creation of two professional training centres for young Cameroonians.

“We know that Cameroon has a large group of well-trained engineers but there are still needs regarding qualified workers to contribute to the development of the country and to be employed by private companies operating in the country,” the French diplomat told the press. The agreement, she added, will lead to the opening in 2016 of two professional training centres, each of them to train 700 young Cameroonians per year.

One of the centres, Mrs Robichon said, will be created in Edea to prepare youth for industrial maintenance, transport and logistic fields whereas the other will be set up in Douala to train professionals in agro-industry.

This project is part of two others amounting to over FCFA 44 billion, financed within the C2D framework. “The new conception in the construction of these centres is the partnership between the State and the private sector and it is very important in such fields because professional training needs to be linked to the needs of the private sector and young people in Cameroon who are ready to follow some training courses in order to get employment need to receive the appropriate training which helps them to find the jobs,” the Ambassador said.

She added that the companies to recruit the trainees will be involved in the training to define the modules that meet the needs of their enterprises. Expressing government’s gratitude to the French government, Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi said the peculiarity of the sectors concerned is their susceptibility to boosting the socio-economic life of the country.

He said besides consolidating the irreversible public/private partnership, the project will also arm the youth with the necessary skills needed in enterprises operating or could operate in the country in years to come.