The African Development Bank’s $156.6 million jobs program in Cameroon’s Far North region has moved from launch to field deployment, with the first beneficiary institutions identified and community-level preparation underway, the bank said in March.
Florence Djaoyang, director of the Ecole Normale d’Instituteurs de l’Enseignement Technique in Maroua, said her school is preparing to receive funding for workshop infrastructure, hands-on skills training, and production support.
The institution is one of the program’s future beneficiaries under the Building Capacities and Skills for Employability and Entrepreneurship in the Extreme North Region (CAP2E).
The program, jointly launched by the African Development Bank and the Cameroonian government on Feb. 24, channels $156.6 million (89.2 billion CFA francs) toward skills development, employment, and infrastructure in one of Central Africa’s most economically fragile zones. Youth and women are the primary target groups.
The deployment progress comes as the bank has accelerated its Cameroon portfolio to about $3 billion.
Since the Far North launch, the bank approved a $357 million loan for eastern road connectivity on March 9 and backed the Kribi Port Industrial Zone with a financing package of $473 million in public funding and $441 million in private investment on Feb. 26.
The Kribi project is projected to create at least 50,000 direct jobs and 150,000 indirect jobs.
CAP2E aligns with Cameroon’s Special Program for the Reconstruction and Development of the Far North and the bank’s 2023-28 Cameroon country strategy.
