Two students from Makerere University students emerged winners at the inaugural Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) University Challenge. Robin Ahimbisibwe a 3rd year student at Makarere University emerged the winner while Nashir Jombe also from Makerere University came in second while Martha Rukundo a student from Kyambogo came in third.
The USE University Challenge is an annual virtual trading competition targeting students in institutions of higher learning. The challenge, according to the USE CEO Paul Bwiso, is aimed at raising awareness among the younger generation on investing in the stock market and helping them create a culture of saving and investing early on though the exchange.
Ahimbisimbwe walked away with 10 million shillings’ worth of virtual capital. “When I heard about the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) University Challenge, I went online and signed up. For a long time I had wanted to learn how to trade, but the requirements for me to trade were too complicated. The first month was challenging. I had too much money and a lot of choices to trade, I did not know which one would work,” says Ahimbisibwe.
Each participating student got UGX 35,000,000 virtual startup capital to trade with using real-time data of shares and bonds prices streamed from the USE. “I read a lot, and asked a lot of questions on the discussion forums.” this Ahimbisibwe notes is what helped him make trading decisions. He is among the 214 students who participated in the Challenge last year.
Nashir Jombe, the first runner up was rewarded with 5 million while Martha Rukundo received 2.5 million shillings for coming in third.
The three were considered by a panel of judges to have made the soundest investment decisions. “We also judged them on the reasons they gave for trading as well as their portfolio balance and valuation” notes Andrew Mwima one of the judges.
“We noted that most of the students concentrated their investments in one instrument and never practiced diversification,” notes Mwima,” We hope that in the next Challenge they will diversify their investments.”
Bwiso notes that the University Challenge will be annual in a bid to continue enhancing financial management and investment among the youth.