CAMEROON'S NOMINEES AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PLAN FOR THE

UNCLAS YAOUNDE 001041 STATE FOR S/P Greg Berman and R/PRR Sehreen Noor-Ali SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EAID PREL SOCI KE SUBJECT: CAMEROON'S NOMINEES AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PLAN FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT REF: STATE 112468 ¶1. In response to reftel, Embassy Yaounde submits the following nominees in rank order of preference for the Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit: Alamine Ousmane Mey -------------- Mr. Alamine Ousmane Mey is the General Manager of the Afriland First Bank, one of the largest banks in Cameroon. Under his leadership, Afriland First Bank has facilitated access to banking services and finance to develop business in the Cameroon Muslim community. Afriland Bank created the Islamic Deposit Account, aiming to facilitate access to financial operations by the Muslim community with sharia compliant solutions. Afriland Bank also assists the Cameroonian National Hadj Commission and offers Muslims a savings plan to finance a trip to the holy places in Mecca. Ahmadou Moussa -------------- Mr. Ahmadou Moussa is the General Manager of the Complexe Avicole de Mvog Betsi in Yaound, a private company which specializes in the reproduction of chicks using artificial incubation with vials imported from Iowa. A Muslim, Mr. Moussa has extended his business to all three regions of the Grand North, employing almost one hundred people in Garoua, Maroua and Ngaoundr. Recently, he extended his business to N'djamena, Chad. His ambition for next year is to create an industrial chain of slaughtering which will enhance his ability to export chicken. He is also working on a project to create a training school in the Grand North aimed at encouraging the Muslim community into professional poultry farming. Mr. Moussa is the President of the Inter Professional Poultry Sector Union of Cameroon and President of the Inter Professional Poultry Sector Union of Central Africa. He is also member of the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce. Ibrahim Moukouop Nguena -------------- After graduating from the National Polytechnic Institute in Yaounde with an engineering degree in Computer sciences, Mr. Moukoup created Megasoft Cameroun in 2000. A lecturer at the Polytechnic Institute, he directs the "Polytech-Valor" project which promotes entrepreneurship among young engineers. Himself a young entrepreneur from a strong Muslim- influenced community in West Cameroon, he encourages young Muslims into entrepreneurship and assists graduates in the difficult job market of Cameroon. Mr. Moukouop is also a consultant for the International Labor Organization and for the National Social Insurance company (CNPS) in Cameroon. Dalle Seth Biack -------------- Mr. Biack is the management adviser to Cameroon Active Wear Impex (CAWER),the first Cameroonian company to take advantage of the AGOA textile visa for Cameroon by shipping a container of t-shirts in November, 2009. Mr. Biack expects orders that will allow him to send a container a week, a significant export opportunity for Cameroon. He has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Laval University- Quebec, 1985, and a Masters degree in Management of Small and Medium Size Organizations from Quebec University of Chicoutimi, 1988. Musa Usman Ndamba -------------- Mr. Musa Usman Ndamba is a business leader in the Mbororo communities of the North West region of Cameroon - a minority community with limited access to education and other social amenities. He is President of the Bamenda Economic Operators Association, a grouping of over 1,000 small businesses in the area. Among his accomplishments is the expansion of the traditional "njanji" system of cooperative credit which provides small scale financing in the various markets in Bamenda. His association pools small daily savings of its traders into a common account from which the traders take turns receiving small loans. Herman Aghanguh Kamfa -------------- Mr. Kamfa founded SOLARHYDROTECH Power Company in Bamenda, Cameroon, after graduating from the International University Bamenda in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. His engineering company is developing a number of projects, including: recycling computer monitors into TV receivers which he resells to poor families in his community at affordable prices; micro hydro power for rural communities; biomass and waste conversion to energy; and solar photovoltaic electricity for household lighting and water pumping. He invented a solar incubator for premature infants, which is currently in use in some hospitals in his community, and he is currently working on a project to make solar energy affordable and available to remote communities not connected to the national electricity grid. Ikome Efokoa Wegmuller -------------- Mr. Efokoa is the CEO and founder of Blue Drops Studios, a leader in the nascent Cameroonian film industry. He directed and produced the film "Not My Will," which portrays the challenges of university students in Buea, Cameroon. Efokoa also produces music videos, which have received awards and have been nominated for the Kora All Africa Awards 2009. Efokoa is active in promoting the film industry in Cameroon, helping facilitate the Fako film festival, organized by The French Cultural Center, in Buea. Paul Kamgang -------------- After a career in information technology, most recently as the Chief Information Officer for Shell Exploration and Production Cameroon, Mr. Kamgang founded African Project Management Consulting, a company that specializes in building business capacity and project management training. He created the African Project Management Academy, delivering international management standards courses such as PMI, ITIL, and SIX SIGMA. He has helped numerous high profile businesses and hundreds of professionals obtain international certification in project management standards. He holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the National Advanced School of Engineering - Yaound. Patu Jume Shang -------------- Mrs. Shang runs Tadu Dairy, a multipurpose cooperative of more than 300 farming families aimed at increasing milk and beef production and subsequent transformation into value added products. The co-op's new milk processing unit has a 1000-litre capacity and can produce yoghurt, butter and cheese. Tadu Diary trains milk collectors, milk processors, and marketing agents to work with its innovative collection and distribution system. Shang has implemented modern accounting methods, human resources, quality control, and a code of hygiene. Her artificial insemination program has led to notable increases in efficiency and production. Among Mrs. Shang's other accomplishments are: helping elaborate Sectoral Policy for the Cameroon Ministry of Livestock Under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiatives in 2001; acting as provincial representative of the committee in charge of the implementation of the lactoperoxidase system; acting as a promoter at the international dairy expo in France and in Senegal in 2005 and 2008 respectively; acting as President of the Management Board of the Jakiri Veterinary School since November, 2009. Yves Fokou -------------- Educated in engineering at Purdue University, Yves Fokou manages his father's lumber and hardware businesses in several countries in Central Africa. Officially, he is the Assistant director of S.C.T.B (Societe Camerounaise de Transformation du Bois) and C.E.O of FOBERD CONGO, a hardware store which recently opened a supermarket section, SOFAPRAL, a wine factory, SFPAL, a construction supply manufacturer, and CODECO, a soap and detergent manufacturer. At the wood processing company, he made several improvements in processing timber which resulted in avoiding wasted timber and keeping the company out of bankruptcy. Mr. Fokou implements an anti-corruption policy in all of his businesses that focuses on ethics, transparency and integrity. Haman-Adji Moussa -------------- Mr. Moussa is a published novelist and predictably quirky inventor. His latest innovation is a game for families entitled the "Cameroon Game," which aims to educate people about Cameroon's place in the world. A Muslim hailing from the northern Sahel region, Moussa originally worked in the airline freight business; if his latest foray into the game industry pans out, he promises to follow it with the "Obama World Game." Paul Mbafor -------------- Paul is a young entrepreneur who, with his father and brother, founded Eshcol Housing And Mortgage Corporation, a real estate company. One of the company's projects is to develop an "American city" housing community in Mimboman in partnership with approximately one hundred Cameroonians in the diaspora. The project would attempt to replicate the planned housing developments of the U.S. He led a team of his company's top 4 executives to Embassy Yaounde's annual Investment Forum on Projects and Finance held in April, 2009 in Washington DC. ¶2. Embassy Yaounde's public diplomacy plan will include: - A roundtable of entrepreneurs and business leaders hosted by Ambassador Garvey in Yaounde or Douala in January; - A roundtable of entrepreneurs and business leaders hosted by the Ambassador in the Muslim majority Extreme North Region of Cameroon in January; - A continued dialogue via email on business and entrepreneurship issues with roundtable participants and select business leaders; - Meeting with entrepreneurs during in-country travel (such as the Ambassador's recent visits to dairy and other agricultural cooperatives in North West Province). - Press coverage for the Entrepreneurship Summit. ¶3. Mission point of contact for this initiative is Pol/Econ Officer Erik Martini, who can be contacted for additional details or follow-up with nominees.