The newly trained cohort of 45 young entrepreneurs and consultants was officially handed over end-of-course certificates on August 21, 2025, in Yaoundé.
The Supplier’s Development and Growing Your Business-SDP/GYB approach, put in place by the United Nations Development Programme-UNDP, is a dedicated business support process for entrepreneurs and businesses to improve their financial, managerial, and production skills.
This programme, implemented by the UNDP in Latin America and the Caribbean, is out to empower small and medium-sized businesses by aligning their offerings with market demands, transforming them into strategic, sustainable, and competitive suppliers. This, by strengthening their financial, productive, and management capacities, the approach fosters their professionalization, integration into value chains, and adoption of innovative practices.
Taking the floor to welcome officials, participants, and to unveil the stakes of this programme, Martin Hart Hansen, Deputy Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme in Cameroon, indicated that the training is aimed at building successful enterprises for a sustainable economy.
He saluted the active participation of trainees, experts from other countries, as well as his colleagues from the UNDP office in Latin America and the Caribbean, who showed proof of dedication during the three-month training session.
According to UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative, the success of this programme in Cameroon is also thanks to the government, which has vested its support and involved all the key ministries concerned in this programme. Said:
During the interview session, Martin Hart Hansen added: “We have a very talented group of consultants who have been sitting through these three months of training, and now it’s time for them to take the newly acquired skills and the methodologies to start working with real businesses or enterprises out there in the different regions of the country and to really try to help them grow their businesses, to become a more professional set up in their individual companies. This, in a sense, is only the beginning; we now have a cohort of talented consultants who are starting to go out and work with real individual businesses. They will take on two, three, or four businesses each and really work with them so that we can multiply the number of businesses that get this support and advice. This is why we think we can contribute to building the economy and building the nation, in fact.”
On her part, Ximena Gonzalez Fernandez, inclusive value chain specialist in the UNDP office in Latin America and the Caribbean, described the just-ended training session as one of the best opportunities for SMEs that wish to expand in Africa and worldwide.
Ximena Gonzalez Fernandez stated: “This is an open door for new opportunities for SMEs not only in Cameroon but in the African region. So, for the UNDP office in Cameroon, in collaboration with UNDP in Latin America, we are promoting the SDGs value chain programme, which is a methodology that focuses on boosting SMEs in different aspects, that is, their management, their sales, and their financial education, and obviously, their connections to new clients and new markets. So this is a new opportunity to have a new cohort of consultants that we will use all these methodologies, and they will be equipped to replicate these methodologies in Africa, and specifically in the country of Cameroon.”
This three-month training session took place both online and in-person, with a total of 45 participants who are young entrepreneurs, experts, and consultants in the mining and agro-industrial sectors.
As underscored by Mariette Bissene, spokesperson of the participants, this training programme is an added value to what many of them were already doing in the field.
She said the programme not only permits them to acquire new methodologies that will be used to revamp their businesses but also serves as an opportunity to meet new people with whom they liaise and share some knowledge and best practices. And thanks to the newly acquired lessons, they are ready to brace up for new challenges in the business market.
In his keynote address, Interim Minister of Mines, Industries and technological development, Prof. Fuh Calistus Gentry, first praised this initiative, which, according to him, marks the beginning of a long and fruitful series of trainings for young entrepreneurs exercising in the mining and agro-industries fields.
He said the newly trained cohort of entrepreneurs can be described as pioneers in the Sub-region as they are handed certificates demonstrating their involvement and engagement in a training granted so far to only two countries in Africa, that is: Zambia and Botswana.
According to the government’s representative, this programme comes at a moment when Cameroon is in dire need of restructuring the industrial and mining sectors with dedicated young entrepreneurs.
He said: “This training session just brings Cameroon to the level of Botswana and Zambia, who have benefited from this programme, coming at a time our sectors need a lot of inputs from Cameroonians, where we should transform our products. We believe that the mining sector in particular will conceal business entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized enterprises moving from the rudimentary artisanal mining to why not semi-mechanized mining, and the agro-industrial sector wants to see young entrepreneurs and other people. And by the way, even in governance, as many of the participants who are service providers to the nation will improve. I want to heartily thank and implore the participants to make good use of the training that they have acquired to make governance and youth business better in Cameroon.”
Elise Kenimbeni
