(Ecofin Agency) - Between 2023 and 2025, the Mboa Paris fair, in partnership with the JFN Center, trained thirty young Cameroonians in entrepreneurship, applied innovation, and digital transformation. The announcement was made on April 26, 2025, in Douala by Fatimatou Ousmanou, president of the Mboa Paris association, during a press conference ahead of the event’s third edition.

Mboa Paris is not just a trade fair. It is the first annual business and cultural event designed to connect and unite Cameroonian talent from the diaspora. The upcoming edition will take place from May 28 to 31, 2025, in Paris.

The thirty participants were trained in cloud computing at the JFN Center in Douala, a tech hub created by Cameroonian banker Alphonse Nanfack. His goal: to raise the bar in innovation and tech education across the country. Thanks to financial support from Mboa Paris, the trainees are now either employed in companies or running their own entrepreneurial ventures.

“These training programs open real doors for young people,” said Ousmanou. “They create jobs, and they also empower young people to create jobs themselves. That has a real impact on the economy.”

Looking ahead, she said Mboa Paris plans to scale up these training efforts through new partnerships, aiming to expand both the job market and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Cameroon. “This fair is a space for talent, ideas, and experience—a platform to push Cameroon forward,” she added.

This push comes at a time when the financial contribution of the diaspora is growing. In 2022, remittances from Cameroonians abroad reached CFA221 billion, a 5% increase from the year before, according to a World Bank report.

The third edition of Mboa Paris will focus on turning this financial, intellectual, and entrepreneurial capital into high-impact development projects back home. The event will feature discussions on practical mechanisms to better direct these flows for long-term growth.