-Nformi Stephen Njodzeka Ndzerem

 SHUMAS integrated Bio-Farm is the only centre with four components of renewable energy all in one place.

Stephen Njodzeka Ndzerem is the President General of SHUMAS; Strategic Humanitarian Services and the President General of the Nso Development Association NSODA. He hails from Bui Division specifically from Kumbo and has been the President of the Nso Cultural and Development Association for the last five years. SHUMAS, one of the most impacting NGOs in Cameroon is an organisation that he personally set on the ground about 20 years ago. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante Lenjo.

In what domains have you been intervening with SHUMAS?

SHUMAS is a development Non Governmental Organisation that focuses on Integrated Sustainable Rural Development and on helping the urban poor. In order to propel us to reach everybody and a majority of people in the poor rural Communities and poor urban areas we have eight programmes. Firstly, there is Agriculture. In this domain we have the SHUMAS Bio-Farm and Renewable Technical Centre which is located in Kumbo where we train youths, women farming groups and admit students from all over the country and from different universities; University of Dschang, Ngoundere, Bamenda and all other Universities around the country and some out of the country. We admit them to do their internships at the SHUMAS Bio-Farm. At the Bio-Farm we have three types of trainings.

Tell us about your training programmes..

 First there is a two year programme where we train youth as professional farmers who can actually earn something and who can come out of their projects and set up their own training and become employers rather than going round looking for employment. The centre started about ten years ago and we have trained so many of them and I must also indicate that this 2-year programme is executed in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and of Livestock through the programme called AFOP and training actually is subsidized by the Government. Those at the Centre are given some assistance everyday for their feeding and those who finally graduate and write their projects receive about 1.5 Million Francs CFA to benefit from this project. The importance we attach to it is because of the huge potential that Agriculture has to actually kick poverty out of this country. The programme has been going since 2011 and lots of students have graduated and we have settled about 80 of them already. Our catchment area actually covers the Noun Division, Mezam, Ngoketunja, Bui and Donga Mantung Divisions. We also have the ten-month programme for those who cannot afford to come for a longer period. After training we do support them and here they have a registration of 10.000 Francs CFA. Training too is free but they provide for their feeding and we also provide them with plots where they cultivate what they will consume during training. After the training, we give them between a hundred and three hundred thousand Francs CFA. At the moment we are recruiting for the ten months because we are already finished with those for two years of training so there is still an opportunity for those who want to come to the centre. Another form of training is the short training course. These are specific tailored trainings in which people sometimes come in to get training on Bio gas systems, Renewable Energy or other specific trainings like on pigs and sheep. We receive about two hundred students on internship every year from different parts of the country and from outside the country who come to do their internship. We also have lots of study visitors who come to simply see what is there. The SHUMAS integrated Bio-Farm is the only centre in the world which has four components of renewable energy all in one place. We have the wind energy, solar energy, hydro energy and energy from the Bio-Gaz. Here we organise training in June when we train people on renewable energy with some of our experts from Spain and Switzerland.


Out of Agriculture, what other programmes are you involved in?

Education also comprises a very important aspect of our activities. It comprises about 70 to 80% of our budget. We construct and equip schools, from government schools, Baptist schools, Presbyterian and Catholic schools all over the country but we give preference to Government Schools and every year we construct about 80 classrooms around the country. Presently we have constructed over 800 classrooms in all the ten Regions of the country. We give preference to the Northwest Region and even more preference to Bui Division because while growing in Bui Division I saw the poverty that encouraged me to create SHUMAS so I feel that duty to see what I can do to change the situation.

What main school projects do you have in Bui?

 I must also state that in Education in Bui Division we have a good number of projects going on. We have the Government Technical College Jeibai in Djottin Noni, which just started today and the government Technical College Mbokive in Oku Sub Division which is almost completed. We also have Government School Ichim still in Oku. This year we concentrated in Oku and Noni because we have done very little in these two Sub Divisions compared to the others. We just handed in this school about a month ago in Douala. We built a laboratory and equipped it. The laboratory is worth 35 million and the Chiefs of Douala were impressed and decided to name one of the streets in Douala as Nso Street. We were very proud about it and consider it to be very good Cultural Diplomacy.

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