Cameroon: Garoua Textile Centre Takes Early Steps To Empower Young Women

What the report says

A training and production centre in Garoua, in northern Cameroon, is helping young women learn textile skills while exploring ways to add more value to locally grown cotton. Reporting through Bird Story Agency, AllAfrica says the Gaaraadji Training Centre teaches trainees to weave, dye and embroider fabric, and then retains some of them as paid workers. The initiative is still small, but it is already generating income and building skills in a sector that Cameroon has long underdeveloped.

The article focuses on two trainees, Solantine Maifrigi, 20, and Nafisatou, 18, a single mother, who say the centre gave them a path to earn money after difficult personal circumstances. Maifrigi later bought a sewing machine, while both women are among 10 young people kept on from an initial cohort of 20 trainees. The centre works with cotton thread sourced in Cameroon and operates from a site of more than 700 square metres.

Founder Sonia Hayatou, a chemist who returned to Cameroon after years in Europe, hopes Gaaraadji will become a larger local processor of cotton within five years. The report notes that Cameroon produces large volumes of seed cotton, yet only a small share is processed domestically, leaving room for initiatives like this one. Gaaraadji has already received visibility through a national crafts fair and a ministry forum, and it is preparing to launch formal vocational courses in October 2026, pending authorization.

The story suggests broader significance for women’s empowerment, local manufacturing and Cameroon’s import-substitution goals. It also places Gaaraadji within a wider regional trend of African countries seeking to keep more of cotton’s value chain at home.