Ceci, as we fondly call her is a kind-hearted young lady with so much inside of her. Let’s get to know more about Ceciilia Njika, an accounting student who desires to make Africa clean.
Hi Ceci! Tell us about yourself and what you do.
From age 11, I had always wanted to be a management and a chartered accountant as well as owning my own auditing firm. People who knew me back in secondary school always applauded me for my tasks well carried out as a treasurer or financial secretary of various organizations in school. Asides these tasks in school, I have had professional experience at Afriland First Bank which is one of the top leading banks in Cameroon, as well as Menji Cooperative Credit Union (MECCUL).
I completed my secondary school at Our Lady of Lourdes College in 2012 obtaining my Ordinary Level Certificate with 11 papers (English, French, Mathematics, History, Geography, English Literature, Accountancy, Commerce, Religion, Food & Nutrition and Additional Mathematics) and completed high school at National Education Service College of Arts and Science obtaining my Advanced Level Certificate with 4 papers (Economics, Geography, Mathematics, French). I am currently a 3rd year accounting student at Catholic University Institute of Buea, the 1st and only entrepreneurial University in Cameroon.
I belong to a choir where I serve as the financial secretary. Also, I belong to an organization, JM Ocean Avenue which is in linked to Freedom Faithnet Global (FFG). This is a company which is in charge of the distribution of certain products such as the Angel secret pad, the alpha meta, the alpha spin, just to name a few. Asides the distribution of these products, the FFG, teaches a lot about entrepreneurship and much more. Also, I am a co-founder and COO of an organization by name Make Africa Clean (MAC). It is owned by 4 people: 2 from Ghana, 1 from Senegal and myself from Cameroon. This company aims at making Africa a better place to live in by taking out the available waste and recycling it to produce biodegradable products which will be sold back to the community at subsidized prices. We are starting in our various home countries as mentioned and specifically in our home communities. We will definitely grow and spread to other African countries.
I have a passion for sanitation, thus the company MAC. And I love giving back to the society, reasons why I formed a little group among my friends. Once every month, we visit the orphanage together and give them little needs for them to have a better life.
Oh My Words! You’ve mentioned so much and you seem to be a lady of so much strength. What drives you?
The passion I have for the things I do drives and motivate me. I believe that loving something and having a lot of passion for it is the highest motivation one can ever have. Take for example in school, some students love some subjects more than others, and they tend to do well in those subjects they love than the ones they don’t. What I am trying to bring from here is, anything you are doing with passion will always be successful, and thus passion should be everyone’s drive before the financial aspects of it all.
Passion! Passion for business also took you to the U.S to study Social Entrepreneurship at California State University. What changed about you, after your SUSI experience?
I became more conscious about certain things in life and more outspoken. SUSI made me understand that there is more to life asides our daily routines like going to school. Also, it gave more inspiration to make my country a better place. I learned and realized that America is no heaven, it just has ordinary people who and extraordinary determination to succeed in life and this aspect keeps me going presently. And I learnt that, in life, the only constant is change thus everyone living should strive to be a change maker which I am, and to be uncommon
What do you wish to change in the world?
I wish to make the world a better place in terms of sanitation. Keeping the environment clean brings about good health and being healthy is being wealthy thus I wish to implement that change by starting in my community.
What would your future self thank you today, for doing?
My future self would thank me for keeping my environment clean by taking the massive waste which pollutes the environment and causes a lot of malaria. Thus taking out this waste indirectly gives good health. Also, I will highly sensitize people and give them good enough reasons why we shouldn’t pollute our environment.
Also, my future self would thank me for assisting in marketing a certain product by name Angel Secret. This is a negative ion core sanitary pad which is super absorbent, highly breathable, has an anti-leakage design and has a negative ion technology.
Tell us about any projects you’ve been involved in in the past.
I have assisted in organizing the very first leadership academy which is a leadership training program which took place in CUIB. Also, I have been the vice president of Junior Chambers International (JCI) and I organized seminars and talks on leadership, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Apart from school, what else are you into?
Also, I belong to an organization, JM Ocean Avenue which is in linked to Freedom Faithnet Global(FFG). This is a company which is in charge of the distribution of certain products such as the Angel secret pad, the alpha meta, the alpha spin, just to name a few. Asides the distribution of these products, the FFG, teaches a lot about entrepreneurship and much more.
Also, I am a co-founder and COO of an organization Make Africa Clean (MAC). It is owned by 4 people, 2 from Ghana, 1 from Senegal and myself from Cameroon. This company aims at making Africa a better place to live and starting in our various home countries as mentioned. This is to be done by taking out the available waste and recycling it to produce biodegradable products which will be sold back to the community at subsidized prices. Presently I am still a student and mostly occupied with studies reasons why I just take out the waste and send the waste dumping site. I sell the recyclable waste to a recycling company.
Also, I’m into the redesigning of old shoes and bags. I take worn out shoes and bags and redesign them using Ankara fabric making them portable again.
What is your advice to young females who have low confidence and don’t believe they can be more?
Lack of confidence is like a disease, a virus which renders you weak and makes you unable to progress in life. Thus we should avoid having this kind of a virus. I will advise that young females should look up to Oprah Winfrey as a role model. Despite her poor and painful childhood, she excelled. I say painful because she was raped only at the age of 9 and was beaten severally. There is a lot to this lady which makes me have much more confidence than I ever had.
What are your favorite words?
- Embrace pain for it makes you stronger.
- Changemaker.
- The un-commoner.
- Be excited.
- Remain focused.
- Dream big.
You’ve spoken with so much courage, but finally, share a secret with people. What scares you the most?
The unknown scares me most. True we all plan for the future and work for our dreams and goals to come true but there are unforeseen circumstances which may arise that can get you stuck, that’s what scares me most.
You are one amazing young lady, Ceci, great work! Many look up to you, I believe.
