Stella Matutina Secondary School has emerged as the winner of the 2024 Money Makeover Challenge Champions aimed at engaging students in understanding money flows, financial literacy and strategies.
The debate finals, held June 15, 2024, attracted nine secondary schools, was organized by iDebate Rwanda and supported by the Bank of Kigali (BK) Foundation as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to increase financial literacy.
The Secondary schools that participated in the debate include: Maranyundo Girls School, Kagarama Secondary School (former winners of 2023 challenge), Riviera High School, Agahozo Shalom, Lycée Notre Dame de Citeaux, Glory Academy and this year’s two winners- Stella Matutina and College Sainte Marie Reine de Kabgayi.
Stella Matutina Students
Jubilant students of Stella Matutina walked away with a trophy and a cash award of Rwf900,000 while College Sainte Marie Reine Kabgayi, which came second, also received a trophy and Rwf450,000; and other schools that participated also received Rwf50,000 each, certificates and BK Foundation branded T- shirts.
Ketsia Keza, the brain behind the money debate competition said that the intended goal was to provide a platform for students to apply what they are learning, and the students were able to showcases talent
“I was very surprised to see students discuss ideas about marketing their business plans and getting investors to invest in it. For a 16-17-year-old child explaining how he invested his money in bonds, and wanting to buy shares is a surprise,” Keza said.
“This has given me a new task to reach other institutions to help them further understand money and its flow,” she said.
Beata Uwamaliza Habyarimana, the Chief Executive Officer of BK Group Plc.
The Chief Executive Officer of BK Group Plc, Beata Uwamaliza Habyarimana said she was surprised by the amount of talent showcased at the challenge and after seeing that young people have great ideas, the Group finds it necessary to support them to showcase their knowledge in money and finance.
“We supported this initiative because we believe that youth have good ideas and have to show it out. First of all, this competition enables them to discover their capabilities and we see that they can; and secondly this gives us a basis to support them to be financially literate,” Habyarimana said.
Habyarimana stated that this discovery of the amount of talent, ideas and innovation witnessed among the competitors was surprising for BK Foundation, thus the need to continue supporting such initiatives but also encourage other students countrywide and finance sector stakeholders to come on-board.
“They have big and interesting project ideas which indicates that they have an idea about the vision of the country and what is needed. Therefore, it is our role to contribute to youth financial literacy at an early age so that they can also become future investors when they grow up,” Habyarimana said.
Since the iDebate competitions started in 2012, they have helped the participants to become more knowledgeable, confident and eloquent in public speaking, and won awards at the regional and continental levels.
