MTN CAMEROUN and ENEO CAMEROUN Watchword Should Be Everywhere People Live And Work; The Energy Of Cameroon Everywhere People Live And Work Respectively To Support Realized H.E. Paul BIYA’s 2035 Emergence Vision

By CONI T. TAWONG 

On one occasion at Bambui – Tubah, I participated in the reception ceremony at the Palace to the visit of a US philanthropist/humanitarian Dr. John David Arnold, founder of Portable Practical Education Preparation incorporated (PPEP Inc.). Among the things he offered Bambui village were a grant for microfinance scheme, corn mills etc.

ICT available consuming the energy of Cameroon with no user at ENEO office

This brought back to memory what I once lived during my primary school days and this writeup. When I was a little boy in primary school in the village, one of the worries that gave most of us sleepless nights was when we would travel the next day to grind corn. My village Tabenken is situated in a valley between Ndu and Nkambe in the Donga Mantung Division, North West Region of Cameroon. We lived in Kieku quarter in the middle of the village. There were two grinding mills in the entire village of about 17.000 inhabitants in those days – one at Njilah quarter owned by one Mr. Bambo alias “money miss road” and the other at the Old Catholic Mission yard in Mulah quarter above the Palace in Tabenken owned by the Catholic Church. Either corn mill’s distance from our house was about four kilometers. In the village, every family’s staple food was corn fufu, eaten from the 1^st of the month to the 31st morning and evening. We would program grinding on a Saturday or stay away from school to go and grind depending on the necessity of food. On the grinding day, we would get up very early in the cold morning and go to either grinding mill to take our lines. They would be long lines of corn for grinding and we would spend that whole day just for that exercise.

MTN Mobile Money Kiosk at ENEO head office Bamenda empty

The troubles we faced during our days like the fetching of water, firewood etc were minor but still we covered distances. Now when the first pipe borne water was constructed in the village, we were privileged to have a stand tap just above our vicinity. We were happy and appreciated this most not because it was good clean water that has come but because it shortened the distance we covered fetching water.

What continued to give most of us a lot of headache when it came nearer was the corn grinding mills. The first one that was installed nearer our house would get spoil often. It used diesel engine oil, the breakdown would be attributed to witchcraft and our worries of going further to grind corn would continue. They were no expert technicians for grinding mills and so breakdown was blamed on witchcraft. When I saw a US humanitarian/ philanthropist addressing this problem I have always hope addressing, I imagined whether in the US they suffered as children like us grinding corn or otherwise how could he have known that to be a good thing to offer to quarters in Bambui village.

If you read this and was affected in the same, touched or not but would like to join solve this problem in other remote quarters in Tabenken, you would be highly welcomed. This would solve for the younger generation the same problem we encountered.

The crowded ENEO office with consumers idling to pay their bills

Now grown up, there are many of such problems I put here to inform the society in Cameroon about and suggesting solutions. Ever since I entered secondary school, one of the dreaded errands I hated running was to go settle electricity and water bills.  What used to happen long ago I still met in one of the offices yesterday at Cow Street Nkwen-Bamenda. It was still the crowded and dreaded place I hated since childhood to go stand idling to pay a bill. Look at the crowd on the picture sitting to pay their bills at the counter. Hundreds of people gather just to pay bills and sometimes one person perhaps spends more than an hour just to do that. Considering that the minimum wage of a Cameroonian is 36.000FCFA per month, the more than 1.000 people daily wasting an hour each to pay an electricity bill would mean that each person losses 36.000/160hrs = 225FCFA. This times 1.000 people will give 225.000FCFA, money which would pay about six minimum wage earners in the country for one month.

I again observed the MTN Mobile Money Kiosk placed in front of this office to facilitate the bill payment service. There were very few persons using this. I have also seen ORANGE Cameroun advertising Orange Mobile Money when I was at the Police Cooperative Credit Union to do transfer of money to Mbot Village. All these transfers with mobile companies require procedures to be followed on your mobile device and certainly  will be done well by one who is versed with ICTs.

Now the big question is why is MTN Cameroon, Orange, Nexttel, ENEO (The Energy of Cameroon) etc not encouraging by way of ICT education the emergence vision of H.E. Paul BIYA by 2035?  They should support teachers from higher teacher training schools and universities by offering them do internship with them so that they can take the knowledge back and teach this generation practical ICTs.

Looking at the bill paying exercise again yesterday 2/2/2015, it remained the same way that would give me a running stomach when I was young some twenty years or more behind because of the crowd, one would question whether when making money we shouldn’t serve properly. When service providers make money their priority one questions whether if the minters decided to keep all the minted and printed money how would the world look like.

 #ALL IS NOT MONEY is what the government should signal to national service providers.

MTN of late was doing payment of fees in all state universities, publication of GCE results and at moment the National Police Examination. Is the company here just to make their money? Why can they also promote Computer/ICT education in these universities? I think that making the money is good but they should know their customers can be satisfied if they are provided with the skills to use their services well.

The teaching of gambling is common with these mobile companies. I once was victim and spent about 9.000FCFA answering questions rightly thinking that I will in the end win some handy gadget but nothing finally came to me. Suggesting gambling to subscribers should be avoided and perhaps useful lessons on Computer/ICTs uses promoted.