Capital Market Authority (CMA) on March 24 launched the 10th edition of the Capital Market University Challenge (CMUC) with hundreds of students in attendance at Davis College, in Kigali.
The Challenge is an annual competition aimed at exposing students in higher learning institutions (HLIs) to the capital market industry while instilling in them the culture of saving and investment.
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The competition helps prepare students as future investors and professionals in the capital market industry by learning more about the stock market, explained Magnifique Migisha, Coordinator of the Capital Market University Challenge at CMA.
He added that the annual contest seeks to promote the creation of savings clubs or groups among students by providing them with capacity building on how best to save and invest through the local capital market.
Jonathan Gatera, the CEO of RNIT Iterambere Fund, said that as Rwanda aims at reaching upper middle-income status by 2035 and high-income status by 2050, it needs to attract and sustain high private investments, increase domestic long-term savings and capital inflows and promote higher public investment in order to improve gross national savings and reduce the country’s dependency on aid.
He pointed out that such challenges impart young people with knowledge aligned with the country’s vision and prepares them to excel on the labour market because of the skills acquired such as the importance of saving and investment.
Agape Irumva, a business management and entrepreneurship student at Davis College, shared with her colleagues the savings journey she started and the importance of prioritizing saving and avoiding unnecessary expenses, so that she can work towards financial independence.
"Through the exposure we get from these challenges and research, we get prepared to face the market and make innovations that meet social and economic needs among the people,” she said.
Lorna O’Ngesa, Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of academics at Davis College, said the students take part in many entrepreneurial challenges where they win awards and money which they invest as inspired by the schools’ core values.
"Once they leave here, we would like them to be independent, economically, financially. We want them to have the freedom that whatever thing they put their effort into doing, it can give them some results. We expect them to be entrepreneurs and leaders,” she noted.
The 2022 CMUC, Pascal Niyomuremyi, said that the competition helps students to evaluate themselves in terms of what they learnt in school.
"I participated in the contest in essay writing and I won a Rwf700,000 prize in the form of shares. I bought shares in MTN Rwanda and I&M Bank,” he said.
How to participate
The competition framework involves a set of quizzes and a topic for essay writing aimed at increasing awareness and knowledge among students about the capital market industry and its importance for Rwanda’s socio-economic development.
Interested students are allowed to register to participate in the Capital Market University Challenge 2023. Registration shall be done through: https://investor.cma.rw/cmuc/login/index.php
Previous winners are allowed to participate in the current edition.
Individuals will compete in both Quiz and Essay categories after creating an account through this platform: http://investor.cma.
After creating accounts, they will wait for the Quiz or Essay to be uploaded in the system and be informed on when to undertake it, once ready. The challenge will comprise three stages in quiz category at provincial level whereby winners from each stage advance to the next round.