Walter Wilson Nana
Buea, Cameroon
Officials of the Catholic University Institute of Buea, CUIB are matching the spirit of their institution – Entrepreneurial with the reality on the ground – meeting the professionals. To blend the two, CUIB has embarked on the second edition of their Entrepreneurial and Academic Fair, slated from Thursday, January 30 to Sunday, February 16 2014 at their Molyko Campus, Buea.
According to Rev.Fr George Nkeze, President, CUIB, the talk about Cameroon’s emergence and Vision 2035 must be given meaning now and not later. “These, we have started following our quality of education. We have to be hands on in our way of training and get to industrial farming. That is why the Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development will be our special guest at the Fair,” Nkeze noted.
Rev. Fr George Jingwa Nkeze, President, CUIB
He expressed glee that the fair is an opportunity for their students and the university to stand up to their spirit. “It is an opportunity for our students to show proof of their knowhow. Their new and start-up businesses, what our schools have been doing in course of the year and what our students have in terms of business ideas. We have consultancies within the university already and they are doing great things for Cameroon,” the CUIB President explained. “This is the time to show to the industrial world what we are doing, indicate to them that we are hands on and get their support,” he added.
Fr. Nkeze said their students are catching up with the institution’s spirit, noting that the academic system has been designed to be hands on and the entrepreneurial and academic fair are strategies for us to see how our students operate on a daily basis in the university campus. “Our students study together, do their academic projects together, they are assessed in a collegiate manner, they have their semester portfolios to show of what they have been doing and more. So, this trade fair is like a portfolio to show all what they have been doing,” he mentioned.
The CUIB President indicated that the officials and students are excited about the Entrepreneurial and Academic Fair and are looking forward to it. “It is also about the world of arts. We are bringing Cameroonian artistes like Petit Pays, Narcisse Pryze, Dina Bell, the Old Timers Band of Kevin Njomo so that our students can learn from these people. We are making a mix of the old and new generation in music. It is about the old and new cultures. We need that in today’s society. We are also exhibiting the talents embedded in Cameroon, which should serve as a motivation to our students. Nothing stops an engineer to be a musician, an agriculturalist to be a musician, an IT engineer to be a musician. We are telling our students to learn and live out of the box. And not be linear,” he said.
The Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Research and Innovation, CERI, CUIB, Tedd Eyong, corroborated the President. “We will have guests speakers from Cameroon and the USA to talk to our students on how to move on with our strive to emerge as a nation. We have to take ownership of Cameroon’s emergence and President Biya’s vision of the country. We cannot leave it to the President of the Republic alone. As a university, we are stepping in to grab that vision and move forward,” he said. “We want to make the vision of Cameroon a reality in CUIB and not the talk and noise on the radio,” he added.
Tedd Eyong, Director of CERI, CUIB
Eyong mentioned that they are giving their students the competence they need in order to excel in their professions. “That is not enough; we are bringing in the soul of entrepreneurship, which is character, honesty, probity and accountability. A true entrepreneurship education must be backed by spiritual and professional education. If we want to fight corruption, then we must focus on the soul of entrepreneurship. In CUIB, we bring both – the soul and the heart of entrepreneurship to form the new breed of Cameroonians as we move into emergence,” he explained.
