After the election early this year of a new Board of Directors of Cameroon Opportunities Industrialization Center, COIC Buea, with Barrister David Mafani Namange as new Board Chairman, the institutionโs Board of Trustees has also been reconstituted with veteran journalist, Martin A. Nkemngu, emerging as its new chairman.
Mr. Nkemngu was elected the Chairman of the Board of Trustees on July 24, 2021 in the Board room of COIC. Other trustees are: Chief Etina Monono of Great Soppo; Eyong Thaddeus (Secretary of the Board of Trustees),Mme Effange Matilda, Mme Njimily Marceline and Hon.Meoto Paul Njie(former Interim Chairman of COIC). The Chairman of COIC is an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees.
To qualify as a trustee, an applicant must have been a member of the institutionโs Interest Group for at least ten years, must be a knowledgeable and well-respected citizen. Mr. Nkemngu has been a member of the Centreโs Interest Group since 1995 (that is for 26 years)
The Board of Trustees is the custodian of the movable and immovable property of COIC; it approves decisions by the BOD for auctioning of obsolete materials/equipment of the center; regulates and controls mortgages involving COIC;conducts and oversees all elections to the BOD ; arbitrates any dispute between persons in the various structures of COIC among other duties.
Before the election of the current Board of Trustees, same had not functioned for over a decade.
The Board Chairman of COIC, David Mafani Namange, who doubles as Mayor of Buea, in his address during the Board of Trustees meeting, regretted that for over a decade the office of the COIC trustees was a shadow of itself as no meeting was ever convened.
He urged the new Board of Trustees to immediately swing into action for the benefit of the COIC.
During the meeting its attendees paid tributes to the late deceased Ebella Tome, Hon.Emilia Lifaka and the very Rev. Dr. Nyansako-ni-Nku,who had served as officials.
With a new board of directors and board of trustees now in place, it is highly expected that COICโs plan to kick start training in specialties of Aviation, Tourism and Agriculture, will be realized sooner than laterElinge Marie Limunga, director of COIC Buea recently told AFRICA EXCELLENCE magazine, that with the introduction of programs such as aviation, tourism and agriculture, โWe see COIC growing f rom strength to strength.โ
COIC Buea, which is an affiliate of OIC International in Philadelphia, USA, was established in 1986 as a non-profit, community-based skills training program.
The center so far has offered vocational/technical training, as well as marketable skills, to thousands of young Cameroonians and foreigners in the following fields: Auto-mechanics/Motor Electricity, Building Construction, Hotel catering and management, Information and Communication Technology, Metal Fabrication, Welding and spraying, as well as Wood Work.
COIC graduates are said to be doing extremely well in the job market, both nationally and internationally.
COIC Buea is a non-profit, community-based skills training center and its main source of income is a yearly state subvention of Fcfa 150 million yearly. COIC runs Economic Ventures Units (EVUs) such as the COIC Hotel/Pavillion, to boost its financial power.
