On Wednesday 9^th August students from our PYC Core Course were thrilled to welcome guest speakers Martin Muhwezi and Amon Tukaikiriza of the Investors Club Ltd to the youth centre to talk to them about financial literacy. The PYC core course is a 6 month full-time programme structured around Business, English, Entrepreneurship, ICT and Personal Development classes. Wednesday’s speakers sparked discussion about finance, investment and the importance of saving, leaving our students feeling inspired and eager to start their own investment clubs and start saving money immediately!

Martin Muhwezi started the conversation by asking our students about their passion, and their profession, before taking us back in time to remember the first time we handled money. Then, after an overview of the financial situation in East Africa, and in particular Uganda – which has the lowest GDP in East Africa – Martin discussed the best ways to save, introducing the students to a basic equation to help them in their quest to start saving money. Where Y = Income, C = Consumption and S = Savings, one of the best ways to save is Y – S = C, meaning that you spend only what is left after your savings have been put to one side. As Warren Buffet stated: ‘‘Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving”.

Martin went on to talk about the importance of investment clubs and working together towards a unified purpose. He explained to the students that investments clubs are fun because you can learn, save and invest together as a team. He added that there is also less risk with more people as the risk is divided and also that returns are higher because money has been pooled together and it is easier to invest with larger sums of money.

Martin Muhwezi introducing students to the basic equation to start saving money.

This workshop gave our students the opportunity to interact with successful investors, inspiring them to start changing their mind-sets about money and their relationship with it. The conversation tied in well with our Core Course syllabus, which aims to educate the students about understanding finances and how to best manage them. The Youth Centre gives training in basic financial management including savings, loans, bookkeeping and how to run a business, in addition to inviting professionals like Martin and Amon to speak and mentor the students about saving groups like the Investors Club Ltd which Martin and Amon are a part of.

Our students will continue to be encouraged to work in small groups to help improve their bargaining power and learn how to be accountable to one another. This is a successful model in generating start-up income, as there is security in numbers. As a group the students have the opportunity to start a savings loan group or a small SACCO that allows them to start saving and take out loans from the same group using their savings as collateral.

Our interactive talks from experts help to give the students a greater understanding of different grants and loans, and help them to determine which might be more suitable for them. After this week’s motivational talk, we hope that our students will now feel more confident to think big and dare to start something new!

Thanks very much Martin and Amol!

Martin Muhwezi giving a speech on financial literacy.