28th Anniversary:

 National Employment Fund Fetes with Job Seekers

By Ticha E. Melanis in Limbe

SW Regional Manager of NEF. Ndzica Obama cutting the 28th Ann. Cake

The southwest regional agency of the national employment fund NEF Limbe on Friday April 27 joined other agencies of the Fund nationwide to celebrate their 28th anniversary of the institution. The Limbe branch used the opportunity of the commemoration at the Fund’s SW office at Bota, Limbe to organize a 5-day training workshop for job seekers. The training was on the theme, “Job discovery day”.

            The job discovery day according to the regional manager was to give an opportunity for the public especially the youths to come and get counseling and knowledge from a wide range of speakers drawn from several enterprises and employers in and out of Limbe.

            During the celebration, there were motivational speeches from some employers and establishments like the owner of “Go Ahead Africa” Roland Nkwelle who focused on encouraging the youths on tips of getting a job and entrepreneurship.  Another speaker, Simon Lyonga of Shalom Group called on the youths to be job creators and to focus on building their passion and open their brains to new ideas.

 The opening ceremony was on 24 April was presided over by the senior divisional officer for Fako, Engamba Emmanuel Ledoux, who congratulated the agency for her efforts in assisting thousands of Cameroonians to find jobs. Ledoux urged NEF Limbe to keep up the good work.

            The launching was marked by the graduation and award of certificate to some young Cameroonians trained by the agency with the help of several training center in the region.

            The SDO noted that Cameroon like every other country in Africa is facing unemployment problems and the youths should be rest assured that government is doing their best to tackle the situation. He also said it was this reason that the government created the national employment fund to facilitate the means of finding jobs.

            In his welcome address, the southwest regional manager of NEF, Ndzica Obama,  disclosed that they have successfully found jobs for 21, 871 young Cameroonians out of a total of 33,596 applicants since the opening of the branch in 1990. He also mentioned the training of a total of 6898 young Cameroonians to facilitate their ability to gain employment.

            Mr. Obama used the opportunity to thank some of their partners like Sonara, Seme Beach Hotel, CDC amongst others for their assistance to either train or provide jobs for some of their job seekers.

            He explained how they work to provide job seekers with information on the kinds of jobs available in the market and financial grants given to those who intend to self employ but lack the means. He stated that much of what they do is free of charge.

            Speaking with some of the job seekers present at the workshop, they expressed appreciation for such great opportunity given to them by NEF. 

            “I am happy I came for the workshop. The speeches were very inspiring and I have learnt a lot from the training,” said Tataw Emilie. For his part, Tamnjong Judith said she was overwhelmed and hopeful about her potentials after listening to the different speakers and was thankful to NEF for the initiative.

            The manager of NEF Limbe expressed joy for the huge turnout of job seekers and the activities carried out by the different organizations present. He urged the youths to make good use of the information gathered during the workshop. He equally urged the job seekers to get registered with the NEF so that they can be informed when jobs are available.