BIT 2022 MATRICULATION / OPEN DOOR DAY SPEECH
Buea Institute of Technology
November 19th 2022
Representatives of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, distinguished guests, fellow colleagues, dear students, ladies and gentlemen. Becoming an IT professional was a passion that consumed my heart from an early age. However, in the early 2000s, Information Technology was still a novelty. IT courses had not been introduced into our colleges, our universities seldom offered any IT programmes, and traveling abroad was a luxury my family could hardly afford.
Leaving high school in 2003, I decided to study Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Buea, with the understanding communication was at least one step toward my Information technology career.
I spent my university years foraging through local bookshops spending countless hours in cyber cafes to learn a thing or two about IT. I discovered HTML, JavaScript, and software packages like Microsoft Publisher, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, Macromedia Flash5 and later on PHP. I managed to learn HTML after 3 long years, experimented with JavaScript and gave up on PHP after encountering OBJECTS. Self-studies were extremely difficult and long. There were no teachers, no mentors and many hardly understood what the hell we were even up to. More than once I was advised to abandon my IT route for the popular public “Concours”.
I graduated from the university in 2006, I immediately started working at AfroVision group as a web and graphic designer. The years were fun and being among like-minded peers made learning fast and exciting. I quickly learned XHTML, CSS and Macromedia Fireworks. Money was coming in.
The many years of studies and hard work were beginning to pay. The DOT COM boom was creating waves across the world and we read stories of Bill Gates with utter amazement and awe. Mobile internet became popular and affordable and so did the wider Cameroonian public became more aware and interested in computers and ICTS. Many of my friends wanted to learn and I was ready to teach… for a fee of course!
With all these happening, the urge to set up a training facility was beginning to well up within me. By 2011 I decided to set up a small training centre at the back of the Camerican Building… just next to the public tap along Malingo street. My first students were two of my staff and some four friends. The BIT seed had taken root.
The training moved to this current site in 2014 my father’s Goodwill and belief in the vision. Joining hands with my Friend Mr. Tse Fua, we decided to fully set up a real training centre. The name Buea Institute of Technology was born and we went to work designing the syllabuses for the various courses.
It was difficult finding students and convincing parents was an even greater task. A few empty rooms and a small office didn’t seem like anything. Many parents left as quickly as they came. We had nothing but passion and enthusiasm as encouragement.
We kicked off Buea Institute of Technology in 2014 with just 2 students but in a few weeks, the number had grown to 6. By 2017 we had graduated our second batch of students, with all of them scoring an average of 90% on the National Diploma exams with Mr. Adey Wilson Fru as the new Director.
Then came the Anglophone crisis that shut us down from 2018 to 2020. By 2021 we picked up the challenge once again with more confidence, a greater commitment to quality and professionalism and a slew of brand-new programmes like digital marketing and video production.
Last year our national diploma programs so an intake of 20 students many of whom backed out during the course of the program leaving only 11 students. This year by the grace of God we boast of an intake of 40-plus students and that number continues to increase daily as many decide to join us.
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests. Today we celebrate not only the matriculation ceremony of these newly admitted students but we celebrate the audacity of hope. We celebrate a dream come true; we celebrate a new generation of technology experts! We celebrate our parents our brothers and sisters, our friends and our communities who chose not to give up on us. Technology has changed our lives, puts food on our tables and takes care of our families. That is why today at Buea Institute of Technology, we seek to pass on these same skills to the younger generation. Teaching for us is a passion and Technology is our lifestyle.
Long live Buea Institute of Technology; Long live the Republic of Cameroon.
Thank you!
Benyella Njeko (BSc. M.A. Dip)
Director.
Buea Institute of Technology
19th November 2022
