Unemployment, underemployment and the predominance of the informal sector are high among the Cameroonian workforce, particularly in rural areas. The Growth and Employment Strategy Paper, the Cameroonian government's roadmap for the 2010-2020 period, aims to create tens of thousands of jobs per year, particularly through the development of agriculture and the industrialization of the agri-food sector. Despite the country's significant and varied agricultural potential, very little production is processed locally, and SMEs in the broadest sense of the term have difficulty investing in the sector due to a lack of support, training and financing. Within the framework of the 3rd C2D, the Cameroonian and French authorities wanted the development and processing of agricultural products to be one of the themes selected, with the aim of capitalizing on existing projects, making them sustainable and strengthening their coherence, by promoting the harmonious development of the territories. More broadly, TRANSFAGRI supports the emergence of a successful private sector. Its objective is to identify the players and support them in their development and financing, complementing other C2D programs and those that support the rural sector and larger companies. It deploys an integrated approach combining SME development in the broadest sense, their financing and the structuring of the vocational training offer, in order to best meet the development needs of rural areas, in continuity with the interventions already underway at the level of the Ministries of SMEs (MINPMEESA) and Vocational Training (MINEFOP).
The program aims to make existing actions sustainable, without creating new structures, with a limited financial burden and therefore sustainable in the future for the State. Its added value also resides in the integration of the various interventions, as desired by the Cameroonian authorities, which aims to maximize impact and coordination and avoid fragmentation.