Kini Nsom
28 April 2008
The anniversary celebration of the outfit in Yaoundé was not only marked by winning and dinning, but also by deep reflection and stocktaking on how far NEF has gone in implementing government's employment policy.
NEF's General Manager, Camille Mouté à Bidias, says the organisation was charged with the enormous responsibility of cutting unemployment to size. For one thing, it was created in the heat of the economic crisis when over 20,000 jobs were lost due to the closing down and the slowdown of activities of certain enterprises. Moreover, many more job seekers continued to graduate from school.
Thus, the creation of the National Employment Fund was government's bold attempt to arrest the unemployment rate that was getting to alarming proportions. The outfit began from crash with one office at Rue CEPER in Yaoundé and with barely 10 employees, with Louis Ambellie as its pioneer General Manager. He was later replaced in 1990 by Michael Kiriloff. The present General Manager was appointed in July 1991.
Today, the Fund, whose mission is to curb unemployment by generating job opportunities for job seekers, stands tall as one of the outfits fighting unemployment in Africa. It now occupies the position of first Vice President of the World Association of Public Employment Service for 94 countries. It also heads the African Association of Public Employment Services that has 24 countries.
Under Mouté à Bidias's leadership, NEF now has branches in Yaoundé, Douala, Maroua, Bertoua, Ebolowa, Limbe, Bafoussam and Ngaoundere with some 273 workers. Recently, the Fund conducted a study on the intricacies of the job market and the rate of unemployment with the help of the African Capacity Building Foundation and the National Institute of Statistics.
The study reveals that the employment rate in the country stands at 71.5 percent while the unemployment rate is 4.4 percent. The unemployment rate in Yaounde is 14.7 percent while that of Douala is 12.2 percent. The unemployment rate in rural areas amongst the active population is 1.7 percent.
The National Employment Fund's study reveals that 9 out of 10 job opportunities are in the informal sector. In this perspective, only 20 percent of the employees have a formal contract with their employers while only 20 percent have a real salary status.
Remedy
In a bid to reverse the precarious unemployment situation in the country, the NEF has initiated many programmes. Such programmes border on the training of job seekers to render them ready for the job market, creation of enterprises, as well as funding the follow-up of self employment activities.
They also make information on employment available for the job seeker. It also helps people to create micro-enterprises and orientate young school leavers on professional lines.
Within the ambit of a special programme on Small and Medium size Enterprises, SME, supported by the Head of State, they, in collaboration with the Ministry of Small and Medium Size Enterprises, fund many projects.
They have funded 1,447 projects that generated 3,644 direct and indirect jobs. Besides, the Fund also works on a project known as support programme for the return of Cameroonian immigrants.
The programme aims at facilitating the employment offer for Cameroonians who studied or worked abroad. It is within that framework that136 young cameroonians who recently returned from abroad were given employment. They supported 12 others in creating micro-enterprises.
Equally embarked in the fight against poverty, the Fund runs a project known as Support Programme for the Creation of Jobs in Rural Areas. The programme trains youths in the villages to develop technical skills in the production and sale of their farm produce.
The employment fund has already funded 27,624 projects that created 41,000 jobs. They also help young school leavers to do job orientation. 4,211 young graduates have already benefited from this. They also have a project for youth employment from which some 770 youths have benefited since its launching in December 2007.
In partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Employment Fund runs a project for the employment of people with disabilities. 84 vulnerable people have benefited from this venture. The Fund is amongst the stakeholders that have been reflecting on the professionalisation of the country's Higher Education system.
For one thing, the organisation runs a kind of stock exchange market where employers can recruit the kind of human resources they need. It has structures where job seekers can get information about the job market and for the employers to know the kind of job seekers available.
National Employment Fund building in Yaounde
Besides, the Fund has published brochures that carry a guide for job seekers and employers, professional training amongst other issues.
Place For Job Seekers And Employers
NEF provides a wide range of services to job seekers and to employers as well. Job seekers are supposed to register with the Fund. In order to allow for job supply and demand adequacy and on the basis of opportunities identified in the labour market, NEF designs and formulates training programmes seeking to ease the integration or reintegration of job seekers, in conjunction with training institutions.
NEF thus receives guides and directs job seekers and gives them advice and job market training.As a link between the various stakeholders, NEF has a computerised database of more than 200 job seekers with very diverse qualifications. Half of the job seekers are said to have been integrated.
The Fund is a State body that enjoys financial and legal autonomy and also an instrument at the service of companies and job seekers. Funded by the private sector and the state, NEF provides rapid and professional services to all its partners. Its main resources come from the employer's contribution of one percent of the wage bill of enterprise. It has an annual budget of about FCFA 5 billion.
Main Missions
The fund that became operational in the 1991/1992 academic year has as its overall mission to promote employment in the country. Thus it disseminates information on the job market, integrates young cameroonians who are seeking jobs into the production channel and reintegrates retrenched workers from the public, semi-public and private enterprises.
NEF is also responsible for the design, funding and follow-up of programmes relating to on-the-job training and apprentiship, formal training, self employment, support to the setting up of micro-projects and other programmes depending on the job market requirements.
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