University and college students in Kenya can register to take part in an online investment challenge and stand the chance to win a Ksh. 200, 000 prize (US dollars 2,388).
The competition dubbed the NSE Investment Challenge 2011 is an online simulation of live trading at the NSE and is expected to make stock trading more attractive to youths. It is organised by the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and aims at encouraging the culture of saving among Kenyan youth, fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship and money management.
Students have until the end of April to register for participation in the challenge after which the competition will officially kick off in May and winners will be announced later in August.
Participating students will form groups of up to four people and receive Kshs 2 million (US dollars 23,880) virtual startup capital to trade with using the NSE real time prices for a period of 3 months. At the end of the trading period, the team with the highest portfolio value will be crowned winner of the challenge and receive the Ksh. 200,000 cash prize (US dollars 2,388).
The competition sponsored by Smart Youth Investments, an organisation that offers youths financial education and investment advice, is expected to attract more than 4, 000 participants from 100 higher learning institutions.
The competition which began in 2008 has since reached 9,000 youths in tertiary institutions through investor forums and out of this, 4,466 have participated in the competition.
Catherine Gitonga, the Chief Executive of Smart Youth Investments, told Africa Report the presence of the youth at the NSE at the moment is very low and said “We however hope that in the future this will change due to initiatives like the NSE Investment Challenge which will demystify the trading of securities listed on the NSE.”
For more information contact:
Young Investors: helpdesk@younginvestors.co.ke / 075 3777 446 / 7 /8; 075 3777 450 / 1 /2
Jere Xie
October 20, 2011
Excellent post, thank you!