After graduating from high school in Yaoundé in 1976, Gisèle Yitamben studied economics in France and earned an MBA in the US. On her return to Cameroon in 1982, she became a lecturer at the Pan-African Institute for Development in Douala. When she lost her teaching job she decided to become a consultant and, through the projects that she dealt with, developed expertise in a wide range of women's business activities in Cameroon. The combination of traditional laws that were discriminatory towards women and the lack of government support led Yitamben to set up ASAFE in June 1987.
