Africa Science Week Cameroon 27- 30 June 2017
There are over 200 Institutions of Higher Learning that purport to offer tracks for students interested in pursuing careers in STEM in Cameroon with the majority of these students attending public schools. According to the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an investment in Science, Technology, Research and Innovation is poised to be a game changer for the entire continent of Africa. There have been several Public and Private initiatives aimed at turning Cameroon into a major ICT hub in Africa. Sadly like in most African countries, unemployment is still at an all-time high due to corruption, bad governance, political instability, and sheer greed. Many young people have had their hopes shattered after realizing that they could come out of school with excellent degrees and still roam the streets with no job.
This has forced many along a path of self-learning and mastery like the 17 year old Nji Collins Gbah whom despite the internet ban certain regions were facing in the country, managed to defeat 1,229 other contestants in order to emerge as the first African to ever with the Google Code-In challenge. This earned him a trip to the prestigious Googleplex in Silicon Valley and a Twitter shoutout from the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai (and may be a possible future role at Google). The future of work is global and distributed and therefore the importance of Science, Technology and Innovation at this point in the country’s history cannot be overemphasized. We believe that this is what will deliver the future we desire to live in.
