Buea NASPW Students Receive Presidential Computers

SW Governor B. Okalia Bilai (middle) in group picture with some NASPW officials and  laptops  beneficiaries

By *Ayuk Oru Mary Shevett & Bongbawo Sharon Tita

Students of the National Advanced School of Public Works(NASPW) Buea Annex, last Tuesday August 7, gladly received their on consignment of  computers, which Cameroon President Paul Biya ,in 2016,had  promised  to give ,free of charge, to university students across the country.

A ceremony to hand over a consignment of 553 sets of Paul Biya Higher Education Vison, PBHEV computers (laptops) to NASPW Buea was presided at on NASPW campus by Southwest Governor Bernard Okalia  Bilai.

The donation is part of a 75 billion FCFA partnership between Cameroon and China, where the laptops are produced.  Five hundred thousand (500,000) higher education students are each expected to benefit from the presidential gesture.

  The Governor, who was escorted to the computer distribution exercise at NASPW Buea by heavily armed security forces (apparently because  separatists are using the ongoing Anglophone crisis to threaten the disruption of the smooth functioning of government services), encouraged the students to judiciously use the laptops to ease the achievement of their academic goals.

 According to him, the donation was in line with President Biya’s 2035 vision of Cameroon becoming an emergent nation.

Earlier In his welcome speech, Seasoned Civil Engineer,Kountchou N. Emmanuel who the director of NASPW Buea, disclosed that the beneficiaries of PBHEV laptops were   from the higher technical cycle of the school.

 “The consignment we are about to distribute is made up of 553 laptops. This follows a registration carried out by a team that came from the Ministry of Higher Education and the National Advanced School of Public Works,Yaounde”,the director told the audience ,extending sincere gratitude to President Biya “especially as these laptops are veritable working tools for NASPW students”

NASPW students display their laptops

Speaking on behalf of the students, their president, Alyello Brian Geh,was so overjoyed that he said Paul Biya is  their candidate for the upcoming 2018 Presidential election.

Geh particularly thanked Government for the construction of additional 10 class rooms in the school and the equipment of the Geo-technical laboratory with   modern technologies.

In separate reactions, both the staff and students expressed happiness that NASPW is among the early beneficiaries of the PBHEV laptops, hailing President Biya for the wonderful initiative.

Computer beneficiaries such as Boaye Nguelle Bodric, Njie Albert and Nono Nkwelle Antoine Boris admitted that the laptops would greatly ease their learning process

  According to Taryang Tabe Fitts, Chief of Administration and Finance of NASPW Buea, what is now known as NASPW Buea was created in 1952 then called Surveys. It was later renamed NASPW when civil engineering, rural engineering, and town planning became part of the curriculum.

He said even before the donation of PBHEV laptops to individual students, NASPW Buea has for long been running a well-equipped computer lab (with about 280 sets of computers)

 “What a laudable initiative of President Paul Biya! We are thankful to God,and hope that  the students would  use these laptops  well for their research and academic works”, an elated Tabe said.

NASPW Bueal trains three categories of technicians notably: Basic technicians, Ordinary technicians and higher level technicians in the domains of civil engineering, land survey, rural engineering and town planning.

The current student enrolment stands at about 1500, with 25% of them being female students.

 *Ayuk Oru Mary Shevett & Bongbawo Sharon Tita are University of Buea Journalism interns .