17, April 2017

Biya Laptop Gift: A CPDM 419 scam 1

More than 45 press releases have so far been made public ever since Biya announced that he will provide laptop computers to all university students in Cameroon.  The nation has seen updates on the laptop program coming from various ministerial departments including rectors and divisional officers. Recently, it was the anti Anglophone Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo who addressed the public on the situation of the 500 thousand laptops promised to students of the eight state universities and private higher institutions by the President of the Republic.

In a release signed on Wednesday the 12th of April 2017, Fame Ndongo stated that to be eligible for the offer, students have to meet a certain criteria. The communiqué did not reveal the special barometer.  Fame Ndongo pointed out that nine computer network centers shall be created and interconnected. According to the Francophone Beti Ewondo Minister, this will facilitate the production of a biometric list of students including those in all the 215 recognized private higher institutions in the country.

It is more than a year since Biya spoke of the laptops and thousands of students have already graduated and left the country. Fame Ndongo is now saying that to be eligible, students must be registered for the 2016/2017 academic year.  He also added that a biometric list including students’ ID cards shall be presented at the Ministry of Higher Education for appropriate verification by a competent authority at the ministry.

Jacque Fame Ndongo, (to use his three names) assured students that distribution of the laptops will begin four months after the conditions have been fulfilled. It seems the Biya Laptop Scheme requires a different matriculation day in all the universities in Cameroon. President Paul Biya, it should be recalled, promised five hundred thousand computers to students in his 2016 Youth Day address to the nation. The consignment has been estimated at FCFA 75 billion. Cameroon Concord News is aware Biya and his Francophone regime does not have the money.

By Sonne Peter