Lionesses’ coach Enow Ngachu is betting on the experience of his squad to progress at the African Women Championship from 11-25 October in Namibia. He seems confident that the squad he is grooming would emerge as one of the three to represent Africa at the 2015 Women World Cup in Canada.

Enow says Cameroon has been drawn in the group of death, but hopes that as one of the best teams in Africa, Cameroon would spring surprises. Quizzed on why the problem of fees in never mentioned in the lionesses den, he tells lion4life.com’s Kila Jisi that the authorities are in the position to talk.

Here are excerpts of coach Enow Ngachu’s interview What is your impression after the draw for the 2014 Women Championship? Ah, it was just a draw and there were two pools, ours is the pool of death because the four countries are regulars of the competition, countries that have shown their worth both at the continental and international levels. It is high standard group. We also have to play our card, being among the best teams in Africa though there is need for support for us to have a good Nations Cup.

Cameroon has meet with these countries in the past, these are not new teams, how do you intend to tackle them?

It would be an overstatement but there are two pools; one in which you find Nigeria with Zambia, Ivory Coast and Namibia. Zambia are on their first expedition and so is Namibia while Ivory Coast is on their second participation. What are the chances of Cameroon? Our chances are intact. Looking at our results these past years, we have a chance of going beyond the first round. We are working to attain this objective and we very optimistic about the competition.

How does your preparatory programme look like? We have a programme that was designed long ago and we are already at the end of the first training camp. The second would commence in August 7 with the best from the first camp, a more reduced group and a third camp with the professionals and friendly matches. The last camp would be for three weeks in South Africa before heading to Namibia. I think the authorities are doing their best to put the team in the best condition.

When you talk of best condition, what are your expectations? This means having all the players, respect of programmes and good friendly encounters with the best teams in Africa like Nigeria, Ivory Coast. The federation has been working on this and has written to two other countries. I hope something will be done before the beginning of the tournament.

What is the strength of the team? We have got experience if we have all our players, it is true we have a youthful team because we are also preparing for 2016, we have players that can make Cameroon proud and qualify the team the World Cup in 2015.

What of the friendly against South Africa? Now that we are in the same pool this is no longer possible, but the federation has to look for partners and other countries that can help us gain experience and rectify the last details before the Nations Cup.

Why is there no talk of fees with the women’s team? I don’t talk about this, you better ask the authorities.