Janet Museveni lauds Stanbic Bank for efforts to skill young Ugandans

KAMPALA- The First Lady and Minister of Education Janet Museveni has commended Stanbic Bank Uganda for supporting government’s efforts to skill young Ugandans through its annual National Schools Championship (NSC).

Mrs. Museveni also lauded Stanbic Bank Uganda for working closely with her ministry to support schools to manage the adverse effects of Covid-19 pandemic which forced the entire sector out of work for nearly two years.

She made the remarks on Wednesday while flagging off the seventh edition of the National Schools Championship (NSC), at Kololo Independent Grounds and said, for seven years the (NSC ) has helped unlock the entrepreneurial abilities of thousands of students by providing them with useful skills that give them  self-confidence to become the job creators of tomorrow.

The National Schools’ Championships were first launched in 2016 the same year the First Lady was newly appointed to the Education and Sports Ministry.

“I congratulate the Stanbic Bank management for sustaining this noble initiative for the last seven years; I urge schools to encourage their students to take full advantage of the opportunities that the NSC platform provides,” she said.

She added, “Through many engagements with the Ministry, I thank Stanbic for being among the few commercial banks in the country to waive off accrued unpaid interest in 2021 on loans owed by schools.

Anne Juuko, the Chief Executive of Stanbic Bank said, “in line with our purpose driving Uganda’s growth, we have deliberately made the education sector one of the three pillars of our corporate social investment through which we create sustainable shared community value.”

Juuko added that beyond the NSC which has attracted over 100 schools with a combined student participation anticipated to reach 60, 000 learners, Stanbic Bank has also invested in a bespoke facility through which schools can access affordable credit to rebuild after the pandemic.

“We thank the First Lady for honouring the work of Stanbic Bank in Uganda, by gracing this ceremony with her presence. We acknowledge that being a Ugandan business it is our responsibility to continue investing in initiatives such as the NSC, to reaffirm our corporate citizenship in this country,” said Juuko.

Cathy Adengo, the Bank’s Head of Sustainability said this year, Stanbic bank will implement its project under the theme ‘Empowering the Job Creators of Tomorrow’ and we encourage participants to pitch business ideas that are climate-smart in line with Stanbic Bank Uganda’s sustainability strategy.

She added that, for the seventh edition, the selected schools are drawn from Eastern (22), Western (21), Northern (17) and Central (25). The BizGrow category has 15 nominees and since the program was launched in 2016, the NSC has registered drastic growth each year from 32 schools participating in the inaugural year to over 100 (since 2020) with over 600 student business ideas generated.

At least 200 businesses have since been set up from the ideas submitted. 90 of the 187 actively running student-led enterprises have received capital grants from the championship investor-relations initiatives that help link bankable ideas to financing.

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