Capital Markets University Challenge

Background

One of the statutory objectives of the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) is to promote and develop the capital markets industry in Uganda. Public education has been identified as one of the ways of attaining this goal. In consideration of this, the CMA embarked on a number of public education drives like the Office to Office initiative, public seminars, the Secondary Schools Challenge, exhibitions, and road shows among others, which have catered for quite a large section of the public.

However, an important section that is integral to the growth and development of the capital markets industry in Uganda that has not received adequate focus are the youth in the upper age bracket. There are numerous students in universities and other tertiary institutions who are interested in participating in the securities industry but have insufficient information about the industry. It is against this background that CMA has conceived the idea of a Capital Markets University Challenge.

WHAT IS THE UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE?

CMA with sponsorship from GTZ/Sida FSD programme and Bamburi Cement Ltd (Owners of Hima Cement Ltd) initiated the University Challenge as a tool of education for the youth in the upper age bracket on financial matters. The University Challenge is also expected to capture a wider adult audience such as parents, teachers as well as the interested general public.

The Challenge is a University competition targeting students from various universities in Uganda. The competition primarily focuses on testing the students’ knowledge and understanding of capital markets and financial issues. The challenge also tests the analytical, presentation, organizational and communication skills of the students.

CORE OBJECTIVES

• To create awareness and increase knowledge about capital markets
• To increase participation (in terms of investment and savings) of university students in the capital markets industry
• Increase the Ugandan investor base.

The Challenge comprises of two stages;

I. ESSAY COMPETITION

Preparatory Stage

This stage involves the following activities;

• Providing information to all participants about the Challenge specifying the rules of the Challenge, eligibility criteria, application procedure, the deadline for submission of essays and any other relevant information.
• Advertisements in the form of posters and banners placed at strategic places in each university. The use of banners and posters greatly enhances publicity, because they are the most common and effective means of communication on university campuses. The advertisements also include radio promotions.
• Networking with the key people at the University such as executive committees of economics and business associations as well as faculty representatives as they are closer points of contact for interested participants.
• The essays were assessed and graded by three experienced lecturers and one CMA staff to determine the best eight students to enter the presentation stage.

This year’s essay question was;

‘’The Growth of Savings in Developing Economies has been boosted by the Emergence of Collective Investment Schemes. Discuss.’’

Of the 8 universities that were invited to participate in this year’s Challenge, 7 universities submitted essays and were represented at the Presentation Stage of the Challenge. The following students progressed to the presentation stage of the Challenge;

2. PRESENTATION STAGE

At this stage, the best eight students are required to make a presentation on a topic given beforehand. Each individual student has 20 minutes within which to make his/her presentation.

RULES OF THE CHALLENGE
The following are the rules of the Challenge;

• The Challenge was open to eight universities in Uganda. The participating students should neither be employees nor relatives of board members and employees of Capital Markets Authority.
• Whereas Capital Markets Authority is targeting a large section of university students, in order to effectively manage the event, the participation of students in 2006 was narrowed to economics and business students in their second year of study.
• One student from each participating University will qualify for the presentation stage. Each student will thereafter compete on individual merit to allow for independent thought and analysis.

During this year’s competition on 20 March 2006 at Kabira Country Club, a panel of four judges from the industry assessed which of the students illustrated knowledge of capital markets, financial matters, good communication, and organizational skills and graded them accordingly.

Of the eight students that participated in the 2006 Presentation Stage, the following emerged as the winners;

• Overall Winner ; Stephen Luyonjo from Kyambogo University
• First Runner Up; Mr. David Musiime from Makerere University
• Second Runner Up ; Ivan Karugaba from Makerere University Business School

The Prizes of the Challenge include:

• A three–day visit to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and other industry players in South Africa like the Financial Services Board for the top three participants.
• A vacation internship for the winning student at Renaissance Capital, one of the licensed fund managers.
• A one month internship for the best three participants at CMA.
• UShs 500,000, UShs 300,000, UShs 200,000 and UShs 120,000 for the overall winner, 1 st runner up and 2 nd runner up, and each of the other five finalists respectively, to buy shares in companies listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange or units in Collective Investment Schemes.
• Two mobile phones donated by MTN Uganda to the top two students
• T-shirts, caps, pens and certificates for each participant.

CMA appreciates the help of all the sponsors and partners whose kind assistance made the University Challenge a great success. We look forward to working together again, to achieve even greater successes for subsequent public education initiatives.