5th edition of Stanbic National Schools Championships launched

March 9, 2020 in Companies, Investment, Policy by Editor

The programme now has 12 partners as it continues under the theme of ‘Empowering the job creators of tomorrow’ in a bid to support the up-skilling of the youth in business creativity and entrepreneurship.

Stanbic Bank has launched the 5^th edition of the ‘Stanbic National Schools Championship’ (NSC) with a focus on cultivating new partnerships to ensure further growth and sustainability of this education initiative.

The programme now has 12 partners as it continues to under the theme of ‘Empowering the job creators of tomorrow’ in a bid to support the up-skilling of the youth in business creativity and entrepreneurship.

While speaking at the launch of this year’s championship held at Hotel Africana on Friday, Stanbic Bank’s Board Chairman, Japheth Katto said, “Education remains a key sector we continue to support by creating interventions like Stanbic National Schools Championships that aims to equip students with business and enterprise skills in a bid to nurture entrepreneurship and creativity.”

He said, “Uganda has over 3000 secondary schools and about 1.5 million students at secondary level. All these students are expected to go to university, graduate and get jobs in a market with limited job opportunities available. When we started this programme, the idea was to enhance creativity, give financial life skills and build capacity among the youth to create these opportunities. In the programme’ s fifth year, we are starting to see the results manifest. However, our belief is that we can grow the programme to make it bigger in order to reach many schools through soliciting partnerships as we aim for shared prosperity.”

This year alone, the bank has welcomed several new partners including: MTN Uganda, Century Bottling Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Roofings Limited, Patrick Bitature Foundation (SkyZ Hotel), Vero Water, Roke Telkom, in addition to Next Media Group, International University of East Africa (IUEA), Mandela Group of Companies, Uganda Christian University (UCU) and the Mandela Group of Companies. It is through these partnerships that the programme will continue to have a long-term impact on the progress of education in Uganda.

“This year’s theme Empowering the Job Creators of tomorrow has a new tag line: I can do it’. We believe mindset change starts with the individual. We want to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship among students as we seek to promote financial management and economic development. We need a young generation who are able to provide solutions tailored to the needs of our communities and sustain the longevity of those solutions,” Katto said.

While commenting on this year’s edition, Barbara Kasekende, the Stanbic Head of Corporate Social Investments (CSI) said in just five years the National Schools Championship has evolved in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

She said, “As we groom the youth, we need to ensure they are prepared for today’s challenges and understand that world is more interconnected than before. That said, this initiative supports eight SDGs that include: No Poverty, Quality Education, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, climate action and inclusive partnership to achieve the intended goals.

This year’s championship is two tiered. The first tier is the business generation stage where all new ideas battle for the best execution at the finale. The second tier speaks to our project sustainability plan where we engage existing businesses (15 competitors) on ground to battle for more financial investment into their businesses.

“The championship is expected to provide students and the school eco-system with Life skills, financial literacy and and entrepreneurship skills as it continues to improve, problem solving skills, build confidence, refine their presentation skills and equip them with critical and creative thinking skills. Lastly, participants will be exposed to professional career Guidance and counseling services resulting in appropriate career choices,” Kasekende said.