A support programme for SMEs was launched on Friday in Yaoundé. This is a new factory to entrepreneurs established in Cameroon via the integrated capacity-building entrepreneurial Programme (Empretec).

The Minister of small and medium-sized enterprises, social economy and handicrafts (Minpmeesa), proceeded to launch this program Friday in Yaoundé in the presence of the minister of economy, planning and territorial development (Minepat) and the minister of employment and vocational training (Minefop).

For six days, 36 participants with promising ideas, owners of SMEs or start-ups received training in this program. One of them unveiled the outlines of training: "we are experimenting behaviours to be acquired by contractors and strengthen our capacity to undertake. These training will allow the improvement of the visibility of our SMEs at the international level as well as the improvement of productivity."

EMPRETEC programme of the United Nations, is based on capacity-building, the sharing of experiences. "Participants have 60% chance to create their businesses at the end of the training," one of the officials said. In addition to this, a finding was made.

According to the head of mission of the United Nations Conference on trade and development (UNCTAD), Fiorina Mugione, "human resources should be strengthened. It takes networking to develop a class of entrepreneurs who are able to assert themselves in all areas.

For Minpmeesa, Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa: "SMEs represent more than 94% of the population of the Cameroonian structures. This program fit into the lines of the programme of economic development through the strategy for growth and jobs and complements a range of structures in entrepreneurship."

In General, the Empretec programme aims at the creation of sustainable, innovative and competitive SMEs. It helps entrepreneurs develop their investment projects and to assert itself on more and more liberalised markets, by making them generators of income and employment. The program has a strategy for the development of entrepreneurial skills, which is based on the identification, review, selection and support of enterprises with strong growth potential.