The North West Cooperative Association (NWCA) Ltd has been recognised as the Community Development Champion 2025 during the North West Economic Forum held in Bamenda, in acknowledgement of its outstanding contributions to rural development, job creation, and inclusive economic empowerment across the region. The award was received for the institution by Neng Delphine, head of the marketing department at the final moments of the forum.
Neng Delphine (center) receiving award for NWCA Ltd
Enter NWCA Ltd at the Economic Forum
From its well-curated exhibition stand, NWCA Ltd presented a living story of farmers turned entrepreneurs, fields turned into factories, and communities reclaiming dignity through cooperative effort.
“This award belongs to every farmer who wakes before dawn to till the soil." It is a recognition of rural endurance and a call to do even more.” Waindim Timothy Ntam, the Association’s General Manager, said moments after his institution received the honour.
Founded in 1950, NWCA Ltd has grown into the heartbeat of agricultural cooperation in Cameroon and beyond, representing over 35,000 smallholder farmers. At a time when the economy reels under inflation, insecurity and emigration, NWCA Ltd has offered an alternative script of one brewed in the sweat of peasant labour and the strength of collective action.
At the helm is Waindim Timothy Ntam, a seasoned rural development expert whose leadership has transformed the cooperative from a producer union into a modern agro-industrial force. Under his watch, the Association has invested over FCFA 200 million in a state-of-the-art processing and packaging facility, providing over 500 jobs, many of them to internally displaced persons (IDPs). Yet the achievement goes beyond numbers.
At the Forum, NWCA’s award-winning product, Kola Coffee, was celebrated. Made from locally grown Arabica beans and packaged with cultural flair, the coffee encapsulates pride, heritage, and possibility. Each cup, carefully brewed at the NWCA stand, drew delegates and dignitaries including Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique and Minister Mbayu Felix into conversations about community ownership and economic justice.
“We are not just exporting beans anymore. We are exporting identity.” GM Waindim explained to Hilltopvoices.
Kola Coffee now graces shelves from Bamenda to Berlin, and has carved out a growing presence in the United States and Asia, thanks to strategic market partnerships and fair-trade positioning.
The award also acknowledges NWCA’s lesser-known but deeply impactful community projects ranging from educational support to IDP reintegration, gender inclusion, and digital literacy programmes for rural youth. Under Timothy Waindim’s leadership, the cooperative has distributed seeds to struggling farmers, supported women’s cooperatives, and offered vocational skills training to unemployed young people.
His recent election as Vice President of the Industries, Mines and Public Works Sector in the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce (CCIMA) further cements his stature as a reformer whose credibility is anchored not in boardrooms but in the dusty hills and foggy valleys where Cameroon’s coffee is grown.
This year’s Economic Forum was around “resilience, recovery and rebranding” and NWCA Ltd embodied all three. In a region eager to move past the trauma of armed conflict and economic stagnation, NWCA's model offers a tested path: build from the bottom, trust the cooperative spirit, and let the farmer lead.
As the Forum drew to a close, many delegates carried home packets of Kola Coffee as tokens of hospitality, yes, but also quiet reminders of what is possible when a region invests in its own. And in the words of Waindim Timothy Ntam, spoken softly beneath the cheers:
“Development is not a theory. It is a seed you plant, a harvest you share, and a future you shape together.”
By Bakah Derick for Hilltopvoices Newsroom
Photos by Nyanchispov Photography
Email: hilltopvoicesnewspaper@gmail.com
Tel: 6 94 71 85 77