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| Mbombo Abel Chenyi |
Mbombo Abel Chenyi, Lord Mayor of Ndop
Council is an Accountant by profession. A Chattered Accountant trained in
London. He worked as a Banker and went on retirement when he was the Assistant
General Manager of Union Bank in Cameroon. He also worked with Cooperatives and
worked with 40.000 farmers for a period of 27 years working with them on how to
manage their savings with Cooperative Credit Unions. He eventually went into
politics. Let’s however listen to Mbombo Abel Chenyi to get an insight of the
Community Developer. This interview takes us through the educational training
of Mbombo Abel Chenyi, His vision and development initiatives as a community
developer as well as his present initiatives. He begins by telling us about his
studies in England. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante; Publisher of
Cameroon People and Edev Newspaper.
“I studied at the
South West London College and from there I went to Tutors College where
Accountancy is done. I was later awarded a Chartered Accountant certificate in
1990. I was sponsored by the European Union scholarship in collaboration with
North West Cooperative Association and I thank them for that. I served at the
Northwest Cooperative Association as the Financial Manager. When I came back
home I had to work with them for ten years which was obligatory. When the Union
Bank was opened in 1990 I joined it as the auditor and rose up from there to become
the Assistant General Manager and because of illness I came back home. I went
to the US for treatment and I am finally strong enough to be at the post in
which you find me today.
The
Community Developer…..
You
have worked a lot with communities assembling people at the grassroots and
bringing them together which is one of the reasons we have included you in this
publication. Tell us about your experience with the grassroots and how this
pushed you into politics.
First, I am a
product of a farmer and my fees were paid from the farm. When I was serving the
Cooperative I realised that the farmers were at the low level of income in the
society and knew the pains through which they passed to get money. Look at the
cost of a bucket of corn today in Ndop, it is being sold at 1200FCFA but the
actual cost of that corn is 3000 FCFA. I sympathized with them and looked for
ways to nurse the idea. We started by developing the savings under the credit
unions and we raised a lot of money. When we opened the branches of our Bank in
Yaounde, Douala, Kumba and Limbe I went and planted the ideas there. My aim was
to let the public know that the credit union was the base for the common man
and if you save through the credit union you
become each other’s keeper. I encouraged them to do that and when I
moved round, I raised over 4 Billion for the Bank. We struggled to get the Bank
at this level because we realised after observing Cameroon Bank and other Banks,
that the little credits of the credit unions were swept away in those banks
going under. The banks collapsed and their savings were not protected so we
tried to bring them together to see what could be done. Today the cost of
fertilizer is always very high so we encouraged village savings and when you go
to villages today you find what is locally referred to as tontins or njangis. It is
a system in which they do their savings and help each other. The cooperative
spirit we built was each for all and all for each. Dealing with 40.000 farmers
was certainly difficult. We opened the Santa Pinyin Coffee factory and I was
the first President there and worked with them up to 1980.
Ndop,
the largest settled municipality in the upper Noun Valley is transforming from
a rural area to an urban one thanks to the growing Economic Power of
Agriculture. Can you explain how this is happening?
Considering the low
income from Coffee, maize, beans, banana, coco yams it was difficult but
luckily in 1980 the government came up with what is known as UNVDA, the Upper
Noun Valley Development Authority and I happened to have served there as a
member of the Board. We realised that
our low level lands were very good for the production of rice. We went in and
surrendered the land and it was installed. From then till today, most of our
youth are not moving out of the place. The women have been stabilised since
they work in these rice farms. UNVDA is pushing up with this by giving the rice
to the farmers on credit. They have the Technical knowhow and that enables them
to build the contours or rice rooms where rice is grown. This has stabilised
the economy and reduced social tensions in these areas. The Vegetable growing
activity has also greatly improved and has increased the income of the rural
masses. They sell their vegetable in Douala, Yaounde, Bamenda, Kumba among many
other urban areas in Cameroon. The people due to their growing incomes decided
to open stores. The bikes you have in town here are savings from low income
persons and it has all generated a lot of development. There is also the
community development spirit which has not been left out. As President of the
Bamessing Traditional Council, we incorporated all the female folks into the
council and 40% of traditional councilors in Bamessing are women. These women
educated other women on how to manage their homes with the little income that
they had and send their children to school. It is regrettable that for two
years school was interrupted but things are beginning to pick up again. The
build up to school reopening is going on and I went out with the Honourable
member of Parliament from school to school and we noticed that the buildup was
impressive. The MP donated books and gave scholarships to some desperate
children.
How
have they been braving it through this crises period?
They have not been
quite hurt because of the stabilised atmosphere. Ours is a municipality with a
hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants and it is quite big in terms of
administration. The responsibility is subdivided between the Fons, the quarter
heads, the administration like the SDO, the DO, so that together we harness our
efforts. With the stability built from the base you see that the people are
able to build the beautiful houses that you see. They are gradually but surely
moving from a rural milieu to an urban area. If you stand up at Sabga and throw
your glance down this way you will see that we are growing into a city. We have
one of the first modern slaughter houses that we have opened and it is among
the best in the region. We think that the butchers and cattle breeders will be
very happy with it. It guarantees for the hygiene of what goes into the stomach
since we will be able to use that in processing our meat. Apart from the
slaughter House, we have our modern market which I have been notified will take
about 600 tenants. It will soon be constructed in agreement with FEICOM and
they will construct some houses here to incorporate the civil servants that are
transferred here. I am hoping that after Bamenda, it should be Ngoketunja that
should lead development in the Nortwest Region. It will be a transit market because
we hope that the Bamale-Mbouda road will be tarred soon and those going from
Nkambe, Kumbo coming down will not need to go to Bamenda. There will be the
possibility for people to construct very strong Warehouses. We think that
sooner or later Ndop should be a city.
Message
Things have
generally been very difficult and we have also noticed that Technical schools
were left out from this region apart from GTC Ombe within the Tiko
Municipality. As a result everybody struggled to go to Nigeria for Technical
Education meantime French speaking Cameroonians were enjoying a system with a
lot of Technical schools. The authorities have now stepped in to adjust that
and there are many Technical establishments today. More space has been created
for our English Educational Sub system. ENAM now has been beefed up with the
common Law system. For everybody who is progressive in nature, there is no life
that has no hitches. If you move round in dust, you must have jiggers entering
your feet and when this happens it does not mean that you should cut off the
foot. Try to remove it and do so carefully before you destroy a tendon. I think
we should put our heads together and stop loosing souls.
Les Gens Du Cameroun: Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237696896001/ 669542467/ 678401408
Les Gens Du Cameroun: Email: edevnewspaper@gmail.com/francoeko@gmail.com/ Tel: +237696896001/ 669542467/ 678401408
