Last Updated on: 14th October 2022, 02:26 pm
Kiira College Butiki got water tanks
By Nelly Otto
Jinja, October 14, 2022: Kiira College Butiki (KCB) has received an assortment of gifts including four water tanks and smartphones worth 15M/= after emerging number two in this year’s edition of the Stanbic National Schools Championship (NSC) that ran for 8 months.
The items were Thursday 13 October 2022 handed over to the school, situated about 8 km outside Jinja City during a ceremony witnessed by the school administration and officials from the bank which is the biggest financial institution in the country.
What earned KCB the prizes was their innovation of a juice product, now branded as Tiki Organic Juice which is a household item among the school community both students and teachers.
Anchoring on the overall theme of Empowering the Job Creators of Tomorrow, the students of KCB came up with a superb business idea that has since solved a local problem within the school community.
Pascal Jeremiah Nangiro, an A-level science student, told reporters that the business idea was conceived at the peak of the high rate of flu and cough at Kiira College Butiki.
“…we had just returned from the two-year lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic and about 80% of the community was having this problem and we thought this organic juice could offer some remedy,” Nangiro said.
Indeed, after a few weeks of consistently enjoying the juice, the cough rate fell to 20%, triggering enthusiasm from everyone to embrace and support the venture which has since taken shape at the school with more than 1,000 boys.
Diana Ondoga, the Manager of Corporate Social Investments while speaking at the ceremony said this year’s competition (Season Seven) under the tagline ‘I Can Do It’ was intended to impact 100 schools, 60,000 students and 100 teachers nationwide.
Giving a demographic view that almost 80 % of Uganda’s population is below 24 years of age simply means the same percentage below the age bracket have no jobs because even graduates do not have the skills needed to be employed, Ondoga justifies Stanbic’s rationale.
She said the initiative is aimed at a mind-shift change where most youth in the country think education is synonymous with white-collar jobs in offices as opposed to using the knowledge acquired to seek solutions to their local situations.
“…our focus was in the areas of personal finance, business or entrepreneurship, and life skills, record, and bookkeeping, among others towards the fulfillment of seven sustainable development goals (SDGs),” according to Ondoga.
The bummy Ondoga went through the processes and stages involved like inviting applications from willing schools, shortlisting through elimination methods leading to selecting the ones with the most viable business ideas.
She said this year’s edition attracted about 60,000 students from more than 100 Ugandan secondary schools which participated with the climax this month with the highest prize of a solar panel, laptops (valued at shs30m) going to Mandela SS in Hoima district.
This challenge which has grown every year from only 32 schools was launched in 2016. It is a four tier competition codenamed StartUp, Biz Grow, Alum Grow and Teach Grow for new schools, schools with existing business and teachers challenge respectively.
“…we make sure that participating students compete in several qualifying rounds, including attending a boot-camp at Gayaza High School after which a winner is identified at a grand finale…,” OIdoga said.
She says in the boot camp, participating students are empowered with skills like business plan development, customer care, communication skills, branding, and marketing, among others.
Plans are under way to engage more than 200 schools including those in hard to reach areas so that they also benefit from this initiative which is in line with Stanbic Bank’s philosophy.
“…we always want to nurture these young people to inculcate positive values and attributes so as to cope with responsibilities and life’s challenges as they journey through life…,” Ondoga added.