Young researchers promised FCFA 35 million

Young researchers in Cameroon who will emerge with outstanding research results that will be useful to the science community, primary producers and economic operators will take home FCFA 35 million.

The Cameroon Government, in partnership with the Canadian Government, are the sponsors of this Excellence Award.

Speaking at the 2014 Northwest Regional Open Day for Research Excellence and Innovation that took place on November 5, the representative of the Minister of Scientific Research and Innovation, Dr. Helen Ntonifor, said President Paul Biya has set aside FCFA 10 million and the Canadian Government FCFA 25 million, for the research.

Ntonifor added that, for the Canadian Government, the move is an annual event and that, last year, it was a Togolese researcher who invented a grinding mill for cocoyam that won the prize. She called on young researchers in the Northwest to work hard and win the prizes.

The Regional Chief of Centre for Research and Innovation Northwest, Dr. Anastasia Asongwed Awa, appealed to researchers to translate research results into consumable packages that would effectively be used by the population for economic advancement.

She said the objective of the Open Day is not only to bring to the limelight research works, but also to identify and project independent research that may have interesting findings to offer to the public, as well as, lay the ground work for regional participation at the National Day for Scientific Excellence and Innovation.

Dwelling on this year’s theme; “Research and Innovation for the Economic Development of the Northwest Region,” Dr. Asongwed said the theme lay emphasis on the need to increase agricultural productivity to meet with food demands, not only for the growing population of Cameroon, but for countries in the CEMAC Sub-region.

Presiding at the occasion, the Inspector General at the Northwest Governor’s Office, Charles Ivo Makoge, said Government has done a lot to invest in scientific research for many years. To him, research is only useful when the results are used to improve on the living standards of the population. He urged researchers to source for funding and carry out more research.