BSA group celebrates over Rw1million prize at the 4th edition
Claver Rusaro and two other students at College of Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (CAVM) in Musanze district studied under difficult circumstances unable to afford transport and books.
This year, the trio participated in 4th edition of the Capital Market University Challenge winning Rwf1million from an essay writing competition.
The money helped them register a company called The Super SaversCAVM with intensions of saving for the future but consulted stock brokers for advice.
“We decided as a team to immediately buy 4000 shares with Bank of Kigali with each share worth Rwf290,” said Rusaro.
In less than six months, the trio have been able to use the money to afford school requirements, transport and other personal needs but also spared some 2200 shares to remain on the stock market.
“We had no idea that investing in stock markets can be a life changing financial strategy until we joined the challenge, we always thought stocks were for the rich,” Rusaro said.
As long as Bank of Kigali exists and performs well on the local stock market, the students will continue counting more profits depending on shares.
With this guarantee and credibility of the bank’s stock group, the students are planning to halt anymore expenditures and think bigger saving strategies after solving petty issues.
“We won’t withdraw any shares for the next seven months. We will evaluate our finances in 2018 and look into possibilities of adding in more shares or start another business,” Rusaro told KT Press.
The fourth edition of the Capital Market University Challenge took place from May 17 – June 9 covering over 300 students from 21 universities and other institutions of higher learning.
Among other lucky winners was Elysee Musoni, a statistics student at University of Rwanda, Huye campus who had formed a 6-person student’s savings group each contributing Rwf3000 monthly since February 2017.
Musoni’s group was among the top four winners awarded Rwf1.1 million in both essay and quiz competitions
With an initial capital of Rwf1.5 million the team decided to register a company –Brave Statistical Analysts Group-(BSA) which has since trained 120 university students in using statistics software like Data pro.
“We teach savings alongside our training and we are looking for tenders in research work and data analysis to sustain our business,” Musoni said.
More than 150 students were rewarded since 1st edition of the Capital Market University Challenge which started in 2012.
This year, Capital Market Authority (CMA) has announced the 5th edition of the University Challenge that will be conducted from February 22nd to 22nd March 2018, lucrative prizes on the best students in essay writing competition and Quiz knowledge on the capital market industry.
The main objective of the challenge is to create awareness among students while they are still in school and just before they join the workforce.
“In order to secure their future, young people need to venture into smart saving and investment that will guarantee sustainability, which includes venturing into the capital market and buying shares or bonds offered by different firms at the stock market” said Magnifique Migisha, the CMA Head of Investor, Marketing and Communications.
Students being sensitised on capital markets
Savings Awareness Campaign
Rwanda has launched a nationwide campaign to encourage a culture of savings and becoming a cashless economy by 2024.
Currently, over 86% of Rwandans save compared to 71% in 2012. This has seen the number of deposit accounts increase from 1, 736, 203 in June 2016 to 1,871, 858 in June 2017 as number of borrowers dropped from 299,498 to 261,871 in the same period.
Savings collected compared to withdrawals within the period indicate that Rwandans managed to spare over Rwf129 million in 2017 compared to Rwf128 million in 2016.
Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Claver Gatete said that there has been a significant change in adult savings which should be accompanied by more education for all to save more.
However the Central Bank, Rwanda Stock Exchange and CMA have rolled out options for saving through investing in stocks and bond markets, after a twitter survey indicated more Rwandan showed curiosity to invest in stock but didn’t have full information.
Dissemination of information to investors and the general public on stock markets has seen the 2017 seven years Treasury bond worth Rwf10 billion ($11.72m) oversubscribed and as investor appetite also increased.
This opportunity means easy cash for investor and students who have shares with brokers at the end of the day with yield an interest of 12.400% per coin invested.
