The U.S. Embassy in Cameroon announces an open competition for applications to carry out a program to enhance the capacity of Cameroonian youth in starting and/or developing a business. The program will consist of three regional workshops in three different regional capital cities of Cameroon. 

The aim of this project is to assist new entrepreneurs seeking to expand and grow their businesses and activities. Proposals must demonstrate knowledge of Cameroon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and propose training modules with the goal of moving seed stage entrepreneurs to the intermediate and expansion stage. As a result of the training, participants should have measurable increases in sales, employment and capitalization of their start-up enterprises, increased access to capital, and/or marketing planning. Proposals should include follow-up activities after the training to assist participants in applying knowledge acquired to produce results in scaling up and expanding participants’ existing start-ups, and to measure impact of the program. 

Please carefully follow all instructions below.

Program Objectives: 

·        Enhance entrepreneurship, leadership, and communication skills of Cameroonian youth

·        Provide a deep understanding of the business environment in Cameroon

·        Introduce participants to state and private institutions support systems and resources for emerging businesses

·        Equip participants with strategies to overcome the hurdles of doing business in Cameroon and to increase resilience in a challenging environment

·        Train participants in business plan development, financial management, market segmentation, product marketing, and other related skills

The applicant will design and carry out all aspects of the symposiums. The proposal should include details about symposium length, content, suggested speakers, participant recruitment and selection, etc. The workshops should be conducted in person, in a format that is compliant with COVID-19 prevention measures, and should be interactive and include activities such as practical exercises, case-studies, break-out or large session discussion groups, and/or fact-finding exercises. Applicants are encouraged to identify and highlight specific subjects of emphasis during the symposiums, according to needs of emerging entrepreneurs in the given area. 

All proposals must include needs analysis activities to assess participants’ needs, follow-up activities to reinforce training topics and empower the participants to put them into practice, and monitoring and evaluation activities to assess the impact of the project. All proposals must include American resource materials or American-origin entrepreneurship and business models/ideas in the symposium content, and/or involve American experts or alumni of U.S. government exchange programs.

Proposal budgets should include costs for participants’ travel from their residence to the project location, accommodation (as necessary), as well as all necessary working materials and resources. Budgets may also include honorarium for speakers and administrative expenses for the applicant.

Audience:

Participants should be drawn from all 10 regions of the country. The target audience is Cameroonian entrepreneurs, ages 20-35, with clear and well-defined business ideas in the “seed stage” or “early stage startup” categories of business development. They should be drawn from all 10 regions of the country. Each workshop should reach a manageable number of participants to ensure quality, interactive learning and retention of content.

Go to Related Documents for the full announcement.

For the full Notice of Funding Opportunity, click on the full announcement link below.