Press Release
The Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education, Chancellor of the Academic Orders, chaired the Second Session of the Steering Committee of the Presidential Support Program for the Employability of Young Graduates of Higher Education for Business Creation (PRO-PAEJ) on Wednesday, 19 February 2020 in the Conference Room of the Ministry of Higher Education.
ln addition to statutory members of the Committee, the Director General of the Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises (APME) and the representative of the Director General of the Cameroon Bank of Small and Medium Enterprises (BC-SME) also attended the working session of this Committee, as special invitees.
The agenda focused on the evaluation of the level of progress of the pilot phase of the program, which was launched on November 4, 2019.
From the evaluation made during this session, it was noticed that:
- The first PRO-PAEJ call for applications published on the 4th of November 2019 through a Press Release from the Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education, was followed by a favorable response and strong support from Higher Education graduates, with 2415 applications from young entrepreneurs and promoters of business creation projects across the National territory.
- Cameroon’s University youth are endowed with an impressive and unsuspected entrepreneurial dynamism that manifests itself through a multitude and a diversity of concrete economic activities carried out by young graduates of Higher Education.
- ln relation to the pilot phase of the PRO-PAEJ project, one hundred (100) projects, ten per Region, with a high potential for the creation of wealth and decent jobs, were selected, following a rigorous selection process led .by experienced professionals who conducted field visits to ail the Regions of the country to see and assess ‘ïn situ Il the relevance and economic potential of projects submitted by young Higher Education graduates.
- ln 2022, after three years of technical, financial and logistical support by the PRO-PAEJ project, of an average of eight (8) million CFA francs per project, the national economic fabric will be enriched with 100 new functional and economically functional Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMS) thereby generating about 6,000 direct and decent paid jobs, as well as a combined turnover of nearly 10 billion CFA francs.
- The National University Community sincerely thanks His Excellency Paul BIYA, President of the Republic, Head of State, for his personal commitment in the implementation of the PRO-PAEJ project, which is one of the most important breakthroughs for young University graduates in the current Seven Years Mandate of Greater Opportunities. Download the Press Release