During the Regional Youth ICT Boost Camp organized by UNESCO Regional Office for central Africa in Yaounde-Cameroon in October 2021 we met with Yunika Robert, 26, a young ICT innovator living in Buea, the town also known as the Silicon Mountain, dubbed after the Silicon Valley in the USA for its fast-growing tech industry.
In 2017, job and investment opportunities started declining for almost everyone. This was heightened by the crisis in the North and South-West Regions of Cameroon. The insecurity in the region led to unreliable internet connection and communication network problems, power failures and of course, failing investments. In Buea where the investment landscape was at a peak before the crisis, young people in the tech domain began experiencing a downturn.
The situation discouraged many young people who felt obliged to migrate to other cities to seek for peace and opportunities. Yunika decided to look at the opportunity instead of the problem. Within his community of the Silicon Mountain ecosystem of Buea, Yunika and his team of the Hardware Innovation Valley Community have been working on several innovative ideas, one of which is creating a 3D printer that was revealed to the public during an experience sharing and award event called the Silicon Mountain Innovation Challenge.
The 3D printer that can lay down many thin layers of a material in succession to create a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model was showcased and emerged as the best tech creation during the event.
Yunika鈥檚 workspace has also been opened for profitable collaborations with other start-ups and investors out of his community and this is also thanks to a series of UNESCO-organized ICT workshops including the Youth ICT Boost Camp for Central Africa that enabled him and many others to see opportunities beyond their communities.
During these events, we got to meet youths, experts and investors from other countries of the Central African region who presented a plethora of tech projects and communities. We shared experiences and discovered new opportunities that we can exploit within the industry.
The event highlighted the importance of developing access to information laws and their implementation around the world to rebuild strong institutions for sustainable development and uphold the vision of information as a public good. In addition, the global discussions helped to create a framework for exchanges on the evolution of access to information and to enhance the entrepreneurial potential of young people in Africa in the fields of ICT. The stakeholders and beneficiaries included government ministries, the private sector, experts, students, and young ICT enthusiasts.
These platforms are opportunities that bring talents together, and connect young ICT entrepreneurs, with private sector entities and the banking sector for financing their initiatives.
Through the BoostCamp, participants reviewed existing opportunities in the public and private sector for ICT startups, and further discussed how to use ICT for the development in the sectors of education, agriculture, security, transport, health, and employment.
The platform created after these events are already serving as a space for personal development as well as opportunities for young people.
Yunika Robert reveals that, after being part of this network, he is currently collaborating with other innovators to develop an African game and presently finding strategies to develop and deploy the hardware part of the project.
鈥淭he 3D printer was in the pipeline and after the Boost Camp program, its production and design were accelerated based on perspectives gotten from well-established companies and partners supporting this initiative鈥 he added.
The COVID-19 pandemic has defined a new way of doing things and digitalization will open doors to millions of jobs especially for young women and girls. The creation of opportunities in the ICT sector falls in line with UNESCO's 2020-2021 strategic plan in the information and communication sector, which also aims to promote universal access to information through open, inclusive solutions, and the innovative use of ICT for sustainable development.
For more information
Kingsley Nfor Monde
k.nfor@unesco.org
Public Information
Regional Office for central Africa
