The Minister of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts Achille BASSILEKIN III on Wednesday March 9th 2022 at the Yaoundé Hilton hotel presided over the opening ceremony of the round table discussions on the presentation of the new CAMTEX LAB tool intended to support textile entrepreneurship in Cameroon. The objective of this round table discussion was to arouse the interest of the participants to become active partners of CAMTEX LAB.
CAMTEX LAB is an incubator or accelerator placed at the service of Cameroonian textile entrepreneurship so as to meet the stakes of the local textile context. It contributes to the emergence of new textile SMEs in Cameroon that focus on the local and sub-regional market. CAMTEX LAB is financed by the German Cooperation through ProCOTON for the growth and support of textile industrial start-ups in Cameroon.
While opening the round table discussion, Minister Achille BASSILEKIN III expressed his satisfaction for the advent of this new support player specializing in textiles. Similarly, he indicated that this action which falls within the legal framework enacted by the texts governing incubation in Cameroon must require competence and an itinerary for better support. To him, the textile and cloth sector has to gain some professionalism and resilience especially in terms of national and global competitively and most especially accompany actors of the sector to attract more foreign direct investments. He went further to state that this network will therefore permit those who will benefit from the incubation to reach out to new actors, build partnership and generate more technicalities in the textile sector.
With the above benefits that the Cameroonian textile and cloth sector stands to gain, Minister Achille BASSILEKIN III declared that this incubator is highly welcomed in Cameroon given that it will go a long way to create wealth, reduce unemployment as well as reduce the rate of untransformed cotton that is exported from Cameroon to other countries.
Besides attracting young talents to the textile industry, it is worthy to note that a partner of CAMTEX LAB stands to promote the Cameroonian textile sector with an innovative showcase, participate in the development of a new dynamic ecosystem, attract investment opportunities in promising start-ups and increase the country’s international visibility and be part of a strong national ambition for Cameroon’s textile industrialization.