The Minister of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts ACHILLE BASSILEKIN III has handed over certificates to more than 15 consultants from six French-speaking countries. This was during the Award ceremony for nationals from ten French-speaking countries, certificates for KAIZEN consultants, award for winners as well as international symposium on the dissemination of the Cameroonian KAIZEN model, that took place on Friday July 4, 2025 at Mont Fébé Hotel.
Speaking during the ceremony the representative of the Japanese Ambassador to Cameroon, Mr. UEHARA KENYA, encouraged by the results, urged participants to share their expertise with other countries, particularly those in the sub-region. Mr KAGEYAMA, resident representative of JICA, congratulated the winners and encouraged them to continue disseminating best practices in continuous improvement and productivity.
To this end, six winners received certificates in the category of KAIZEN Basic consultants, six winners received certificates as KAIZEN Advanced consultants, two winners received certificates as KAIZEN Basic trainers, and three winners received certificates as KAIZEN Senior consultants. Some enterprises were equally awarded including 5S Prize Winner – VLITA, the KAIZEN-CMIC-YASSA 2nd Prize Winner, the KAIZEN-CMIC BASSA 1st Prize Winner Company, the Best Inspector Award, and the Africa Kaizen Awards 1st Prize Winner Company Award in its category, PROMEB.
In addition to these, 15 winners received certificates in the category of foreign participants.
At the end of the award ceremony, the representative of the foreign participants, Dr koffi Che Che Christian from Cote d’Ivoire, expressed joy and satisfaction with the training and selection process.
He called on all the winners to be aware of good moral and professional practices in their various fields of activity. Speaking to the press, one of the participants praised the efforts made by their trainers to instill in them a spirit of hard work, entrepreneurship and productivity.
In his closing speech, the Minister of SMEs, ACHILLE BASSILEKIN III, said that Cameroonian SMEs had become more productive and had significantly improved the quality of their production by eliminating waste, thanks to the kAIZEN approach. He said that companies that participated in the pilot phases of the process reaped many benefits, including improved working conditions, expanded production space, on-time delivery of services thanks to the optimisation process, and increased turnover made possible by reduced production costs.