He studied without a computer. Today Ndzedzeni Lidovic Nyuydzefon runs the trainings at Let's Talk Tech that teach young people in Bamenda to maintain, network and use them.

Lidovic is the Programs Manager at Let's Talk Tech, a Youth Parliamentarian and a peacebuilder from the highlands of Nso, in Cameroon's North West Region. His road ran through poverty, a crisis that took two of his uncles, and a year as an internally displaced person. He came out of it with three trades: teaching, computer networking and counselling psychology. This is his story.

From Nso to Bamenda

Secondary school meant long walks every day with friends, from Squares to Tobin, to Government Bilingual High School Kumbo. He kept a clean disciplinary record and passed his Ordinary Levels in 2014. In 2015 money ran short again, just as Lower Sixth began, so he moved to Government Bilingual High School Kimbo (St. Nwerong).

That is where people started noticing him. He was made Language Prefect and Form 2B Supervisor, the link between teachers and students. He signed classmates up for compulsory civic training, and the Divisional Delegations of Secondary Education and Transport picked him as a School Delegate for Road Safety and for First Ambassadors Training.

Then the crisis came

The Anglophone crisis broke out in 2017 and schools shut. He went back in 2018, in dangerous conditions, and earned his Advanced Level Certificate. He had planned to become a priest with the Piarist Order in Kumbo. The violence ended that plan. Two of his uncles were killed. Young men in his area were pressured to join separatist groups, or treated as suspects by soldiers.

Facing the threat of being "shot on sight", Lidovic fled to Bamenda and spent a year there as an internally displaced person. He did not sit and wait for things to improve. He started learning skills he could build a life on.

Learning to teach, then learning tech

A competitive entrance exam took him into the College of Technology at the University of Bamenda, where students elected him Socio-Cultural Coordinator twice. To cover his costs he volunteered as an Office Assistant in the college's English Office, typing exam papers, formatting letterheads and handling student complaints.

By 2022 the bills had caught up with him. Rent near campus was high, fees were heavy and matriculation was suspended. He passed the entrance exam for AVTC Limbe and studied Computer System and Network Maintenance there from 2023 to 2025, serving as Class Delegate and as Site Supervisor for the construction of the campus fence.

Then he returned to the University of Bamenda, to the Department of Counselling Psychology, and finished in 2026. Teaching, networking, counselling: together they let him deal with both the machines and the people using them.

What he believes

Growing up without a computer shaped what he cares about. He studies how poor regions can skip expensive infrastructure by using decentralized technology, how governance can give grassroots people a real voice, and how digital tools can warn communities about conflict early and help them recover after a crisis.

He does not accept that young people and the state must be enemies. A community grows, in his view, when youths stop treating authorities with fear or hostility and start working with them as partners. On education, he is wary of handing thinking over to machines: students learn best when they work, reflect and do their own research, with technology at their side.

His test for development is simple: growth that takes livelihoods away from the poor is bad growth.

Running programs at Let's Talk Tech

Getting the government on board

Youth programs last longer when the state backs them, so Lidovic became the organization's link to government. He secured official recognition of Let's Talk Tech trainings from the Regional Delegation of Employment and Vocational Training (MINEFOP) North West, the Divisional Officer for Tubah, the Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Center Tubah, CIOP Bamenda and the National Employment Fund (NEF). These bodies also committed logistics, infrastructure and administrative support for future trainings.

He held partnership talks with La Liberté Arts Group and Noble Arts and Entertainment (NAEC), and ahead of the Minister's working visit on September 29, 2026 he represented the organization at consultative meetings at the Regional Delegation of MINEFOP. He was then appointed to the committee in charge of presenting the ORFEV holiday training program.

Inside the team, Lidovic is the official Focal Point to the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training for the North West. His counselling background shows in how he manages: he replaced informal updates with structured progress reports that track attendance, performance and internship placements, and he gives junior team members room to lead.

Civic work, peace and volunteering

He also volunteers. He was a facilitator in a 30-day compulsory civic training program for the National Civic Service Agency in 2019, and coordinated clean-up campaigns in Tubah. At the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé he was a protocol officer at the National REPAIR Alumni Convention (December 2026) and Chief Protocol Officer for E-Mentor's "Leave No Learner Behind" policy brief (2026). In Bamenda he was protocol lead for the University Dialogue on Inclusion at Hill Park Hotel.

Community projects, by the numbers

• 20 students affected by the crisis received partial university scholarships through a 2026 partnership he secured with SEVICTI Higher Institute of Commerce and Management (HICM) Yaoundé.
• 28 children displaced by the crisis in Bambui received books and learning materials (2023).
• 63 peace ambassadors were trained at the intergenerational peace dialogue he organized in Tubah (2022).
• 68 youths joined the LoYoC peace clean-up campaign (2024).
• 108 youths were registered into the National Youth Observatory with Biometric Youth Cards, plus 30 youths living with disabilities in Tubah (2023).
• 30+ young people were helped onto electoral lists (2025).
• 800+ youths were trained over seven years in the 30-day Compulsory Civic and Moral Rearmament Conscript Training (2018 to 2025).
• 32 water-friendly trees were planted at the Jem Water Catchment in Kumbo (2017).

Leadership roles over the years

Campus, grassroots and church roles

• Coordinator, Association of Conscripts, Tubah Sub-Division (2023)
• Class Delegate, Computer Network and System Maintenance, AVTC Limbe (2023 to 2025)
• President, Think Tank Club for Peace, Bambili (2022 to 2024)
• Vice-President, Debate and Public Speaking Club (UBaDec), University of Bamenda (2021 to 2023)
• Socio-Cultural Coordinator, Department of Computer Engineering, COLTECH, University of Bamenda (2021 to 2023)
• Class Coordinator, GBTTC Bamenda (2019 to 2020) and Language Prefect, GBHS Kimbo (2016 to 2018)
• Steering Committee Member, Waa Cameroon / IFA-Civic project on young women's political participation
• In the Kumbo Diocese: President of Cadet of Mary, Kumbo Cathedral Mission (2017 to 2018), Vice-President of the Kumbo Deanery Cadet of Mary (2015 to 2018), Cadet of Mary Social Communicator (2017), and leadership roles in the Vocation Group (2014 to 2017)

Work experience

• Community Mobiliser, ReachOut / WESAD / MenEngage (2023)
• Volunteer, MINJEC / Multipurpose Youth Empowerment Center, Tubah (2023)
• Coordinator of Invigilators (2022 to 2024) and Examiner for university-wide courses, University of Bamenda (2022 to 2023)
• Support Staff and Pedagogic Animator, NCSAPD / MINJEC (2018, 2023, 2024)
• Teacher, Government Practicing School, Bamenda (2020)
• Office Assistant, Sebastian Information Technology Academy (SITA), Kumbo (2016)

Debate, speaking and writing

He was the Inter-Faculty Debate Champion at the University of Bamenda in 2022. In 2023 he reached the national finals of both the Talent Houses National Debate Tournament and the National Public Speaking Championship. His speeches often drew on his own life: the Nso highlands, the crisis, and his push for youth empowerment and digital equity.

On stage

He gave the keynote at the Intergenerational Peace Dialogue in Tubah (2022). In 2026 he spoke at the Holiday Youth Empowerment Forum of the Bamenda III Council, the Candidature Etude Entrepreneur Forum in Tubah, the launch of the Therapeutic Action Initiative (TAIA) Association Cameroon and the closing of EU-funded projects in the North West and South West, and facilitated a session on volunteerism at the Let's Talk Tech training. In 2025 he spoke at the Let's Talk Tech Christmas training and graduation, and on the Ballot Buddy regional sensitization tour.

Watch the Let's Talk Tech 2026 highlights video to see the trainings he coordinates.

Meetings with ministers and international partners

Awards and recognition

His peace projects include the 2022 Intergenerational Peace Dialogue in Tubah, "Peace with Nature" at the Bambili Waterfall (2023), where more than 25 crisis-affected youths used nature for trauma healing, and a Peace Hike at Ngoh Fala on International Peace Day 2024 with 23 youths and regional officials.

Fellowships, training and certificates

• Aspire Leaders Program alumnus, Aspire Institute (founded at Harvard), 2025
• REPAIR alumnus (2023)
• Social Emotional Learning for Youth Waging Peace, UNESCO MGIEP (2024), and certified Peace and Resolution Advocate, UNESCO
• Cisco Networking Academy: Networking certification (2024) and Introduction to Cybersecurity (2021)
• Nutrition Coordination in Emergency Preparedness and Response, UNICEF (2021)
• African Civil Society Consolidative Dialogue Series, United Nations Association Network Africa (2021)
• Peace advocate training, "Engage for Peace Festival", United Youth Organization (2020)
• Humanitarian Crisis and the Protection of Young Girls, Global Visionary Network (2020)
• Excellent Leaders Incubator Program (2020) and Commonwealth Training of Trainers (2019)
• Compulsory Civic Training, NCSAPD / MINJEC (2017), and Road Safety and First Aid Training (2016)
• 9th International Youth Conference (2024) and Technology Boom and Artificial Intelligence Webinar (2025)

Quick facts