The first graduation for degree students of the Higher Institute of Management Studies (HIMS) was a huge success on Saturday, April 25, 2015 in Buea, Southwest Region. It was HIMS’ seventh graduation of Higher National Diploma (HND) students since the creation of the institute in 2008. It was also HIMS’ first Association of Practical Accounting (APA) Certificate award ceremony.
By Azore Opio
One hundred and six students were awarded their degrees at a ceremony attended by over 2000 people at the National Insurance building.
Guest speaker Professor Cornelius M. Lambi in an academic discourse told the graduates, “The world beyond the confines of the seat of learning is not a bed of roses but one of challenges. To try to overcome the challenges of unprecedented population growth, poverty and poor political governance, you graduates should put into practice what the university [HIMS) has imparted to you for the wider human community.”
“Don’t look unto the state for employment because you have been given the necessary capacities, competences and enabling intellectual packages to stand on your own and to create jobs rather than looking unto others for employment,” added the professor emeritus.
Prof. Lambi advised the HIMS graduates to intensify their entrepreneurship and professionalism to ward off the daunting challenges of unpleasant economic and financial doldrums, excessive greed, galloping corruption coupled with dwindling job markets.
Despite this rather depressing scenario, Prof. Lambi reassured the graduates, “On the Cameroonian economic landscape today, small and new businesses are mushrooming and flourishing and providing new opportunities for thousands of job seekers. And what is significant is that many of these business innovations are the handiworks of young graduates. Perhaps you can do same or even better.”
Lambi further cheered up the graduates when he said they hold the key to Cameroon’s success and progress as they have the much-needed managerial expertise to move the nation forward.
“With you knowledge of management, and having been schooled by a plethora of experts in the field of the management sciences, you have to change Cameroon through an efficient management system,” said Lambi.
If life, according to Prof. Lambi, after graduation from tertiary institutions of learning remains a big challenge, Fomba Bernard Tanyi Babila, President of HIMS, says “Those who listen to us fit themselves in the society. We train professionals with marketable skills; we look at all the stakeholders’ interests and what the employers go for, which is quality.”
HIMS is specialised in the field of Business, Finance and Management, the Bachelor of Technology and the Expert Capacity Building Program which grooms students who aspire to gain top Benchmark Professional Qualifications (BMPQ).
