“We Have At Least 20 Enterprises That Our Incubator Has Developed And Supported”

How is the University of Ba­ menda starting the academic year 2026/2027? We have had our admission boards. The first lists for newly admitted stu­ dents both undergraduate and post­ graduate have been published. The retaining students, especially the fi­ nal year students for the Higher Tea­ chers’ Training College and the Hi­ gher Technical Teachers’ Training Colleges are already on campus since September as they always start early. Some Masters defences are going on in the Higher Institute of Transport and Logistics. Pedagogic seminars have been organized to launch the effective started on the school year. Government policy has tilted to­ wards the professionalization of learning at the level of higher education. How far has the Uni­ versity of Bamenda been imple­ menting the policy? There are different layers of profes­ sionalization. The first layer we tack­ led was giving our students leader­ ship skills. So we worked with the Ministries of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Handicraft and Social Economy and also Higher Education to draw up a new course on leader­ ship, civic responsibility and sustai­ nable development which is a com­ pulsory course for all young people to take. The next layer is entrepre­ neurship training. We have develo­ ped a cohort of training programmes for undergraduate and postgraduate students to learn basic entrepre­ neurship skills. The third layer is to ensure that when students reach the final year, the work they do is largely community-based. So, they solve problems that are in the community and by so doing, they can develop business ideas that they can float. In effect, we are developing the go­ vernment policy of student entrepre­ neurs. We are training students to realize that the days that it is only a certificate that is important are over. You should graduate with skills that will enable you to market yourself, create jobs for others and skills that make you more employable. Entre­ preneurship is a mixed bag and we are digging it and implementing va­ rious aspects. We also try to support the best stu­ dent projects. We run to the incuba­ tion centre of the University. We have focal points in all the schools. We select the best student projects, we grade them, we take the best ones to the national competitions like the National Orientation Pro­ gramme for Higher Education. Our students have been doing well so far in that regard. I can say that we have at least 20 enterprises that our incu­ bator has developed and supported. These enterprises are functional. They have been for the past two to three years with funds that were provided by the University to start up and this year we hope that we will increase that number or double it to 40 or more. What are the palpable achieve­ ments the university has had in the area of professionalization of learning? We have gone quite a milestone. I will start with your own profession. There is a magazine that is very po­ pular in the country now called Time Watch Magazine. It is edited by one of our colleagues, the Head of Com­ munication in the University of Ba­ menda. Actually, it is one of the spi­ noffs of the University. It is the attempt by the University to dig into the communication market. We have students who are fitting into the ma­ gazine, building their profiles and eventually branch off into the pri­ vate sector or develop their own me­ dia houses. The next thing that we have done, is especially in the do­ main of agriculture. The Young Bam­ bili Farmers Association has a green house that is provided by the univer­ sity. Rather than produce tomatoes when it is raining, they now produce tomatoes all year round. They have start-up capital that was also provi­ ded by the University. They take stu­ dents both from the university on in­ ternship, out-of- school youths from the community to participate therein and we are tracking their perfor­ mance. The former students of the University of Bamenda in partner­ ship with the University have also opened a microfinance institution called FEMOSCUL LTD. The institu­ tion as a start up from the University of Bamenda is fully registered and functional. What we are doing now is that the new students projects that are starting, the University is crea­ ting accounts for them in FEMOSCUL LTD, putting up seed money for them to use and by so doing they own shares in FEMOSCUL and they can borrow from the body because they become part of the ownership and share holders. What is the particular focus to enhance t...