By Doh James Sonkey
The Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, Mounouna Foutsou has officially handed kits to the first batch of 50 young beneficiaries of the industrial production and distribution of hot drinks made from local raw materials, cluster. He handed the kits last June 12, 2024 during the closing ceremony of a capacity building workshop at the Nkolda Reference Operational Centre of REAMORCE at the outskirts of Yaounde.
MINJEC had signed a partnership convention with the Neuf International Services Limited for the implementation of Hot Drinks cluster.
Speaking at the occasion, Minister Mounouna Foutsou said “the project is implemented within the framework of the Three Year Special Youth Plan of the President of the Republic, H.E Paul Biya.”
The Youth Affairs and Civic Education boss told reporters that “up till now we emphasise on cluster of production in agro pastoral domain and now we are trying to emphasise on the transformation of industrial production and the distribution of these local materials particularly hot drinks made of local raw materials. I think this is important because this is a key sector already mobilising young people but now what we added as value is this industrial transformation that gives hygiene and modernisation of those trades that are already done by our young people. This training gives them the opportunity to master the different hot drinks that can be promoted through our local materials. They were also trained on industrial equipment that can produce these hot drinks so I think this is an important moment for economic patriotism. We should encourage our population in general to consume those hot drinks and encourage the young people themselves to be more creative and promote those local materials”, he explained.
The youths received 8 days training on Moral, Civil and Entrepreneurial Rearmament and received their kits made up of automatic distribution machine. They addressed a motion of thanks to the Head of State.
Talking to reporters, the Director General of Neuf International Services Limited, Etienne Feuba said “our presence in this sector today follows government’s invitation for our Diaspora to be brought back home and we were searching where we can come in. We thought of Made in Cameroon products and we brought in technology. We expect to transform all the ingredients which go into our automatic distribution machines of hot drinks here in Cameroon. We are transforming local raw materials which everybody knows and just ameliorate the manner of serving it. The initiative was indeed an opportunity to be seized by us.”