Addressing Challenges and Unlocking Growth Opportunities for Youth-led Businesses in Cameroon.

By Ayukmba Nkonghonyor*

In recent decades, youth-led businesses in Cameroon have emerged as a driving force for economic growth, innovation, and job creation with household names in the light of Willian Elong, Olivier Madiba and Christian Achaleke amongst others.

With one-third of the country’s population ranging between 18-35 years, it is expedient for stakeholders to create an enabling environment for youth-led businesses to thrive and seize available opportunities; while equipping them to face challenges encountered in the ecosystem and build sustainable industries and ventures that have a multiplier effect on economic development.

The upcoming #SBEC2025Forum organized at Djeuga Palace Hotel by the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Centre (SBEC) of the Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation in Yaounde, on April 29-30, 2025, seeks to address challenges facing youth-led business in Cameroon and provide an enabling platform to help unlock existing growth opportunities.

Thriving Youth-Led businesses in Cameroon

Despite the current challenging business environment in Cameroon, youth-led entrepreneurs have been able to ascribe their names in golden letters in competitive sectors of the global economy. After ranking 7th in the top 30 of Africa’s most promising young entrepreneurs in 2016, William Elong, founder of Algo Drone Holding, hit another milestone in 2019, securing 2 million euros funding to expand his multisector application business, specialized in drone technology.

In the Africa’s gaming industry, Olivier Madiba has been pioneering the sector with Kiro’o Games since 2013, winning many awards in the process and spotlighted by the selective Warketing Digital media, among the best 20 francophone African entrepreneurs in 2023.

In the same vein, WASPITO, a telemedicine startup, connecting patients with doctors through an online platform, is making healthcare more accessible. In 2023, this startup mobilized 2.5 million USD expansion funding.

Meanwhile in the civic space, Achaleke Christian appointed peace ambassador for the African Union since 2022 and doubling as a successful Executive Director of Local Youth Corner Cameroon (LOYOC) has been an inspirational source of leadership for fellow youths.

These success stories are a clear evidence of the enormous potential that lie in the youths, begging to be nurtured and given the right exposure. By providing tailored technical and administrative supports to SMEs, SBEC is working for the emergence of business champions to perpetuate this cycle.

Overcoming business challenges through the creation of an enabling environment for Young Entrepreneurs in Cameroon

With regards, to aforementioned success stories, the arguments or cliches that youths in Cameroon are not working hard enough, that there is a skill gap or that youths are not daring to indulge in entrepreneurial ventures does not depict the situation on ground.

While these assertions could be perceived as eluding the core issues, they may not be absolutely rolled out. However, the right questions should be, what facilitating frameworks in terms of support and incentives are provided for existing youth-led businesses to thrive?

How accessible and adequate are these frameworks? The fact remains that the portion of youths who actually indulge in entrepreneurship is relatively high, with a very low success rate, going by statistics revealing that in 2021, 61.5% of SMEs in Cameroon did not survive beyond their fifth anniversary.

The key to changing this narrative therefore lies in the ability of stakeholders to address challenges facing these youths, so as to inspire many more.

According to a report by the International Finance Corporation, only 10% of young entrepreneurs in Cameroon have access to formal financial services (Ndode 2024), while only 12% of businesses are formal in Cameroon (Bakehe, 2016), including youth-led businesses. It thus clearly appears that youth-led business are excluded from the traditional banking system, making it difficult for startups to secures loans for instance.

More to that, young business promoters go through unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles to tender for, or even execute public contracts, when they are not simply ignored in the process, despite law N0 2023/008 of July 25, 2023, stating the share of contracts that shall be executed by local SMEs. A glaring proof that access to market is still very restrictive.

Support structures in the form of business incubators, accelerators, entrepreneurship support organizations have been found wanting; providing inappropriate mentorship & business trainings that have failed to equip youth-led businesses with required actionable skills.

Unlocking the future of Youth entrepreneurship in Cameroon: Opportunities & Supports

To address identified challenges efficiently, stakeholders have to critically consider realistic solutions to leverage the full potential of youth-led businesses. This entails ensuring that:
• Government initiatives to support young entrepreneurs are imbricated in a well-coordinated national policy, relevant, purposeful, transparent and fair for youth all over the territory;
• Support structures are empowered to equip young entrepreneurs with actionable skills
• Financial institutions provide tailored industry-sensitive mechanisms to enhance financial inclusion and access to funding;
• International organizations and local Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) should increase funding on programs geared towards entrepreneurial trainings, financial management, and market access strategies.

In this light, the SBEC 2025 Forum would engage sparking conversations with promising SMEs, captains of industries, tech savvy, business development experts, as well as financial institutions to address issues facing young entrepreneurs, and make evidence-based recommendations to policymakers.

Conclusion

As the dynamics of global economy evolves rapidly, youth-led businesses are not just about job creation—they are shaping Cameroon’s economic resilience and innovation landscape. By overcoming challenges, leveraging available support, and embracing digital opportunities, young Cameroonian entrepreneurs can drive sustainable development and transform industries, to position Cameroon as a major competitor by taking full advantage of the country’s geopolitical, geostrategic and geographical competitive edges.

Ayukmba Nkonghonyor is Senior Communications Manager, Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation