The Minister for Employment and Vocational Training has commended the efforts of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) in reducing unemployment in Cameroon by employing several thousands of young people.
On Tuesday November 24, 2015, the Minister for Employment and Vocational Training Mr Zacharie Perevet held a working session at the Senior Staff (SS) club Bota of the Cameroon Development Corporation. He said his mission to the CDC was to evaluate the corporation’s workforce and to create a partnership between his ministry and the CDC.
In his welcome address, the CDC’s Director of Human Resources (DHR) Henry Ikome Becke who represented the General Manager of the corporation explained that, “the CDC was incorporated in 1947 to acquire, develop and operate extensive plantations of tropical crops. It is solely owned by the State of Cameroon, managed under the technical supervision of the Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development and under the financial tutelage of the Ministry of Finance”. Mr Henry Ikome Becke went further to say the CDC has a total workforce of 20,581, making the corporation the second largest employer in Cameroon after the State. He added that during the 2015 financial year, the CDC targeted the creation of 2,856 jobs.
The DHR also highlighted the challenges faced by the CDC such as: poor road infrastructures which poses serious problems in evacuating crops and erratic energy supply which slows down the corporation’s industrial processes. Power outrages during the dry season leads to huge losses in the banana sector due to their inability to operate irrigation plants. Furthermore, the ageing nature of the CDC’s plantations makes yields not to be economically sustainable thereby threatening existing jobs. He saluted efforts currently undertaken by the government get the CDC out of the list of companies earmarked for privatization. The DHR appealed to the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training to organize trainings which will be beneficial to CDC technicians. The Minister for Employment and Vocational Training, Zacharie Perevet and his entourage left from the CDC after a brief cocktail.