The Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Nations united in Africa (ECA), Carlos Lopez, recently invited Cameroon to "focus on value chains to maximize its economic base. In a message released Monday, he invited the countries to design and implement measures to support the initiatives of local companies, in order to reap the benefits of their creativity in local and regional value chains, the disappearance of barriers to innovation and the business practice to improve their competitiveness.

Noting that Cameroon has a potential for economic transformation that could allow the improvement of the living conditions of citizens, Carlos Lopez estimated that annual economic growth, which is currently around 4.9%, "is not to the extent of the vast opportunities offered by the transformation of the country's wealth.

Cameroon, he reiterated, is equipped with a very fertile land, gigantic marine and mineral resources, and also enjoys a favourable geographic situation with broad access to the sea allowing it to position itself as a supplier of goods and services between Central Africa and West Africa.

The Executive Secretary of ECA calls on authorities to promote local industrial processing of food products to regional and international markets to accelerate the necessary changes in a stagnant workforce through entrepreneurship.

"It is essential that policies of Cameroon are consistent with the needs of 75% of the young population that is unemployed" and the Government, which cannot absorb the entire available workforce has the opportunity to remedy the inadequacies between the skills of job seekers and the needs of employers in a dynamics of economic transformation.

The country is also called to broaden the access of enterprises to finance through innovative products of bank credit. For Carlos Lopez, Cameroon "can do much better economically" and reach 7% growth rate, the strengths to be supported by strong policies and a main grip.