By Doh James Sonkey
Private Higher Education Forum opened last August 6, 2025 at the Yaoundé Conference Centre under the chairmanship of Minister of State, Minister of Higher Education and Chancellor of Academic Orders, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo. Officially opening the event, Prof Jacques Fame Ndongo said this 3rd edition of the forum will focus on the valorization of the student-entrepreneur status by Private Higher Education Institutions.
The Minister of State emphasised that the State cannot always finance all the projects of their students, so they should be thinking of an alternative to funding. Prof Fame Ndongo said the forum aims to promote the concept of student-entrepreneurship in private Higher Education Institutions in Cameroon.
This 3rd edition of the Private Higher Education Forum held under the theme: “the student- Entrepreneur in Private Higher Education in Cameroon: from incubation to business creation.”
Participants listened to four presentations on the themes “the mechanisms of business creation by students” by a lecturer of the University of Yaoundé I, Prof Mariette Bissene; “the democratization of science towards the University-Enterprise,” presented by an expert, Prof Mbatcham Fon Wilfred; and “from the University-Enterprise to the Territorial Growth Ecosystem: the ‘entrepreneurial synergies model’ as a strategic level for Private Higher Education Institutions” by another expert, Henri Assembe.
This forum is a platform for information and the sensitisation of students and promoters of Higer Education Institutions on the need to create businesses so as to support the economic growth of Cameroon within a context marked by import-substitution policy.
During the occasion, some old students presented their business projects to participants in their exhibition stands at the Yaounde Conference Centre.
The programme falls in line with the exigences of Law N° 007/2023 of July 25, 2023 on the orientation of Higher Education in Cameroon promulgated by the Head of State, H.E. Paul Biya. The law raises Cameroonian University into a business one and gives students a National Status of Student-Entrepreneur.
After the one-day deliberation, promoters of Higher Education Institutions took the commitment to work hand in gloves to put in place financial instruments and mechanisms so as to support the business initiatives of their students in their sub sector.