Diaspora : Going Beyond Speeches

Cameroonians living in the Diaspora are manifesting more and more the patriotic interest and yearning to come back home so as to participate in the socio-economic, political and infrastructural development of the country. Government on its part is developing attractive policies to lure its Diaspora citizens whose contribution to the development of the country is deemed to be of extreme importance.
Members of Cameroon's Diaspora have steadily been streaming into the country to meet government officials with proposals of   development projects in diverse health, economic, social, industrial and infrastructural domains. In was in this connection that members of the Diaspora group who belong to the “ BackHome”  movement was yet another set of  Cameroonians  who were  recently in the country  promising  to contribute  to Cameroon’s industrialization.  The group led by Arthur Nkili had discussions with the Minister of Communication and Government’s Spokesperson, Rene Emmanuel Sadi on March 19, 2024 in Yaounde.  
Speaking during the occasion, Arthur Nkili said government’s policy content in the National Development Strategy (NDS) 2020-2030 prescribes industrialization and the local processing of raw materials.   He said they are out to align with the policy, stating that the country has a lot of potentials and that if raw materials are processed locally, that will certainly create jobs.  He said the “BackHome” is interested in Kribi where they would want a technology park implanted. 
Government’s determination to take its citizens living abroad on board the country’s development train got to a perceptible apex in June 2017. This was when the first Forum of Cameroonians living abroad (FODIAS) took place in Yaounde. It served as the occasion for government and its citizens living abroad to find common grounds for the country’s development as testified by the resolutions and commendations made. Cameroonians living abroad on their part specifically indicated the areas in which they were interested, indicated impediments to their investing back home and proposed solutions. The Major National Dialogue that ended in Yaounde on October 4, 2019 also had a Commission that worked on the Diaspora issues specifically on ways of causing Cameroonians living abroad to positively contribute to national unity, integration, peace, social cohesion and development.
Members of Cameroon’s two Houses of Parliament that is the Senate and National Assembly have joined the campaign to lure citizens living abroad to come back, invest and contribute to development. They created the Parliamentary Network on the Diaspora, Decentralization and Cross-border Cooperation.  Led by Hon.  Ngantcha, the network has the objective to know and understand the difficulties of Cameroonians living abroad, help them invest in Cameroon and play a facilitating role between the government and them for a good mutual understanding.  Since creation, the network has effectively been serving as the framework for permanent exchanges between Parliamentarians and government, and an advocacy body to attract Cameroonians abroad to come back home and contribute positively to the evolution of the country.
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