Selfless contribution to nation-building: Edison Fru Ndi Unanimously Voted 2020 Dev’t Champion Award Winner

Edison Fru Ndi, Bamenda-based business mogul has been honoured with a prestigious award for his selfless and relentless contribution to the development of Bamenda in particular and the North West Region in general. 

Edison Fru Ndi, crowned as 2020 Development Champion for initiating, spear-heading projects transforming Bamenda into an eldorado

The business magnet cum diehard member of the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) party was crowned winner of the 2020 Development Champion Award. 

Award and trophy handed to the Edison Fru Ndi for contribution to nation-building 

The recognition was conferred on his humble person by Cameroon’s lone English-language daily newspaper, The Guardian Post. This was during the authoritative and widely read newspaper’s Annual Achievement Awards ceremony which held in Yaoundé Friday 9 April 2021.

The crowd-pulling event rallied both national and international dignitaries notably the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, the Acting Nigerian High  Commissioner  to  Cameroon,  the  Nigerian Consul  General  for  the  North  West  and  South  West  regions, the  Nigerian  Consul  General  for  Littoral,  the  Secretary General  of  the  National  Episcopal  Conference  and  the Technical  Adviser  No. 1 at the Hydrocarbons Prices Stabilization Fund, CSPH alongside a cream of renowned journalists from diverse organs among other personalities. 

Addressing attendees at the event, the Chairman of the award committee, Jude Viban, disclosed that the award was given to the entrepreneur following thousands of votes cast by readers, subscribers, advertisers and partners of the newspaper and counted by a jury made up of renowned jurists of international repute and ace journalists.

Viban who doubles as National President of the Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ, said the award accorded Edison Fru Ndi attest to his efforts in selflessly spear-heading several development initiatives that have contributed in transforming the North West regional capital, Bamenda. 

Merited Award!

The man from very humble background who has walked his way to the top through business has resolve to make Bamenda an eldorado where tourists will not hesitate visiting once in Cameroon. 

His strides in this direction for a decade and more has kept him on the lips on many keen observers who venture into analyzing the path to Bamenda’s development. It is this resolve to contribute his own quota to see Bamenda turn into an enviable city in the country that he is affectionately considered people’s true servant. 

Edison has within the ravaging four year-long armed conflict proven his worth as a resilient entrepreneur. As proprietor of Dreamland Restaurant, Snack Bar and Cabaret, he has held his grounds and stayed back to continue operating despite the challenges. 

The founder of Bamenda’s first-ever and modern-day restaurant, Dreamland Restaurant in the early 90s has maintained his space as leader in the business in the region. His remarkable exploits in this sector would later lead him extend the restaurant into Dreamland Cabaret, which quickly became Bamenda’s entertainment hub. The entertainment joint which has nurtured and groomed many budding talents was rated best in the entire CEMAC Region in 2010. 

Edison who also wears the cap of President of the North Chamber of Commerce has gone beyond his cuisine and entertainment business to create other businesses notably a giant quarry industry within Mankon which offer jobs to hundreds of youths without discrimination. 

Edison Fru Ndi has distinguished himself as an exemplary contractor, who, executes contracts granted him with satisfaction. It is this trustworthiness that made his peers to catapult him to the position of President of the North West Contractors’ Syndicate, NOWECOSY. 

Concerned with the health of Bamenda inhabitants, philanthropic, Edison Fru Ndi, joined the campaign to fight curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic by distributing anti-COVID-19 kits including thermoflashes, wash hand buckets, facemask and hand sanitizers among many others to several private  and  public  institutions including Bamenda Regional  Hospital,  PMI  Nkwen, Baptist  Mbingo  Hospital,  the  governor’s  office,  CRTV North West,  Sacred  Heart  College,  Mankon,  Our  Lady  of  Lourdes College,  Mankon  and  Bangolan  Health  Centre. 

In a bid to fight rise in criminality and insecurity, the down-to-earth business magnet provided  streets lights in  some  streets  in  Bamenda including Fon’s  Street  to  Ring  Way Street,  Ngeng  Junction  to  Veterinary  Junction,  Mile  II  Nkwen and  New  Road  (stretch  from  Amour  Mezam  Express  to  Up Station) etc.

Same gesture was extended to Sacred Heart College, Mankon when it went up in flames in 2017. Locals on this area also enjoy a borehole which he recently build and handed to them in a bid to fight the perennial problem of water shortage.  

By Doh Bertrand Nua