Youth empowerment for national development in Cameroon: The case of youths in Buea municipality, south West Region

Youth empowerment remains a major issue in Cameroon and the world at large. This study sought to establish the link between youth empowerment and National Development, examine the activities of the government in the process of empowering youth as well as asses the challenges faced in empowering youths in Buea municipality, South West Region of Cameroon. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used. Random sampling procedure was used to select the youths. The sample size comprised 60 respondents. A 5-point Likert scale was, where variables were categorized as follows: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly disagree. Data were presented as means of each group of charts and graphs. The results revealed that there were strategies used by the government to empower youths in the municipality with policies that emerged from the study such as the Cameroon national youth policy (2006), Special youth triennial plan, Growth and Empowerment Strategy Paper (GESP 2010) even thou they were not that adequate enough. Conclusion given was that such as financial literacy training should be open for all youths, public partnerships should be fostered between the government, development partners, non-governmental organizations, financial institutions and other relevant financial institutions to help youths to access information and capital were then given to ensure and promote adequate youth empowerment.