Muni Girls SS  emerges overall winner of Stanbic national schools championship 

Muni Girls’ Secondary School from Arua in Northern Uganda has emerged victorious in the third edition of the Stanbic National Schools Championship, following a highly competitive final held in Kampala at Africana Hotel, on Friday.

The four regional finalists who made it to the grand finale included: Muni Girls’ Secondary School, Mengo Senior School, Nakanyonyi Senior Secondary School and Bweranyangi Girls’ Senior Secondary School.

The finalists were tasked to create businesses, present their business plans and explain the sustainability of their business.

Stanbic Bank’s Chief Executive, Patrick Mweheire said Stanbic Bank believes that investing in education is a critical vehicle in fostering development in the country.

"This has been a fantastic competition and the entire programme has shown us the budding entrepreneurship potential in the country. Uganda has over the recent past been hailed as the World’s most entrepreneurial country," he said.

While congratulating the winning team at the prize giving ceremony, Stanbic’s Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Barbara Kasekende said: “The team from Muni Girls has been outstanding throughout the competition. They beat more than ten schools to win in their region and have carried this form into the finals culminating in their victory. They are truly worthy winners and representative of exactly what we were looking for when we started this competition which necessitated innovative minds, teamwork and commitment.”

A total of 6,000 students from 60 schools across the country took part in this year’s Stanbic National schools competition including both government and private schools.

Students were taken through different stages in the competition including class room tests, oral quizzes, Essay competition, debate competition and finally a business skilling competition all set around financial literacy, life skills, logic, business and entrepreneurship.

The key note speaker, the NSSF Managing Director Richard Byarugaba said that cccording to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), unemployment rate in Uganda increased to 2.1 per cent in 2017 from 2 per cent in 2016.

"The rate has averaged 2.38 per cent from 1991 until 2017, reaching an all-time high of 3.5 per cent in 2002 and a record low of 0.94 per cent in 1991. In addition, every year, over 400,000 young people graduate from tertiary institutions and join the hunt for jobs in a labour market that does not have much to offer," Byarugaba said.