Youth Empowerment in Cameroon

Every individual in Cameroon has the duty to take part in the development of the country. But because youth unemployment is becoming serious, it is difficult to really say that every individual in Cameroon contributes to its welfare. Today in Cameroon, there are so many universities and higher education institutions providing general education with no marketable skills needed by employers.

The youth of the country are therefore faced with a problem of a large number of them graduating every year without really having the skills needed for the jobs available in the market or the job that fits their field of studies is very limited. Having a higher level of education or acquiring big certificates without really having the required skills and competence is not really relevant for employers (Njoku, 2016).

Moreover, the fact that some employers are also controlled by their emotions making them employ family members or friends who do not fit for the available jobs and leaving out those who really should be employ also reduces the chances of a youth to be employed. Another common practise is the old people refusing retire when they are supposed to do so. Usually arrangements are made with their bosses and they remain longer (Ekema, 2017).

As a result of this situation, youths are therefore obliged to look for a way out to take care of their needs. In most cases, youth involve themselves in bad actions such as stealing people money in their houses, banks robbery like the case of Ecobank Douala-Cameroon in March 2011 (Rngwi, 2011). Some join bad groups like Boko-Haram, some females involves themselves in prostitution just to name a few.

Unlike some countries such as Britain, Canada, the United State of America, and Germany where technological innovation is used to improve the living condition and economic growth of their country, in Cameroon for instance people use this innovation to carryout cybercrime which is commonly known in Cameroon as “419”.

Although unemployment makes some youths to come up with new things such as innovation and creativity, unfortunately because of lack capital and skills, their ideas cannot be put into practice.

Concept of Unemployment

An economy is described by its number of employ and unemployed citizens. On One hand, those who are employed are characterized as the population willing and able to work and are part of the labour force. On the other the hand, the unemployed are those who are not part of the force.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, persons are referred to as unemployment” if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the past four weeks, and are currently available for work. Also, persons who were not working and waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been temporarily laid off are also included as unemployed”. (NJFAC, 2018)

The various types of unemployment include; frictional unemployment, residual unemployment and technological unemployment.

Causes of Youth Unemployment in Cameroon

The Keynesian economic theory states that, when effective demand for goods and services in an economy are not enough, this will lead to unemployment (Jahan, Mahmud, & Papageorgiou, 2014). This is because demand for work force will also reduce. The overall population of Cameroon is approximately 24,678,234 (Worldmeters, 2018), with about 200.000 in the public sector. As a result of this inflating overall population, the number and the kind of work opportunities available don’t fit together. Therefore leading to an economic imbalance because of the reduction in size of the educational class.