Akuna Muchezo Devt Club Wins Dfcu Bank Savings & Investment Challenge

By Aloysious Kasoma

dfcu Bank, in partnership with NTV Uganda and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) have awarded the winners of the second edition of the nationwide Savings and Investment campaign dubbed ‘Battle for Cash’.

Aimed at building a savings and investments culture in Uganda, the ‘Battle for Cash’ challenge in form of a TV show engages various investment groups through saving and financial literacy workshops across the country and selects Clubs to take part in a competition.

For the past six (6) months, dfcu Bank carried out workshops focusing on; Why and how to save, where to invest money so it can grow, things to think about when thinking of investing and so much more. This was aimed at changing the perceptions on money, savings and investments.

dfcu Bank received applications from over two hundred (200) Investment clubs across the country and these were independently vetted by PwC to select top 20 clubs that entered the TV competition.

The Battle for Cash challenge has been running on NTV every Sunday at 6:00pm. As part of the application process, clubs were tasked to develop a Business plan for an innovative investment project. At the start of the show all shortlisted 20 clubs had to defend their business plans to a panel of judges to make it to the next show. The clubs were trained in different aspects and assigned weekly tasks to demonstrate their ability to put into practice what they had been taught.

According to Pamela N. Bahumwire, Partner at PwC Uganda, there is a lot to learn from the Challenge. “The teams that put themselves forward to participate in the challenge are courageous and we could a lot from them. We all have a lot of potential that we may never realise until we put it to test,” she added.

Speaking during the grand finale event, the dfcu Bank CEO, Juma Kisaame said: “Financial inclusion is high on dfcu Bank’s agenda. We believe that providing financial literacy is critical in driving financial inclusion in a sustainable way. There is a pressing need to raise domestic savings in our country and convert it into financing – loans – for infrastructure, housing and small business creation.

As dfcu Bank, it gives us a sense of pride that we are playing our role in the savings equation. We have a long history of promoting a Savings and Investment culture that dates as far back as 2007 when we introduced the Savings and Investment Clubs proposition to foster group savings. To date we supported the formation of over 20,000 Savings and Investment clubs across the country with a savings turnover of over UGX 600 billion. We believe there is a greater opportunity to raise more awareness and challenge ourselves about savings and investments,” he concluded.

Following last year’s inaugural campaign, dfcu registered an increment in Investment Clubs with over 6,000 new Clubs being set up since January 2018.

“The Battle for Cash competition has offered many lessons for us and we have been able to use these lessons to work towards the ultimate prize. This has been a great opportunity for us to get new ideas on how to handle different business challenges,” said a representative from Akuna Muchezo Development Clubthe winner of the Battle for Cash Season II finale.

Speaking at the Award ceremony, the Katikiro of Buganda Owekitibwa Charles Peter Mayiga, commended dfcu Bank on choosing Nairobi as a destination for the Study tour for the participating Clubs. “Many Kenyan companies now registered on the Stock Exchange started as Investment Clubs and are turning the economy around. If you stay the course, get advice from experts like PwC, on top of the exposure you have got, you may be the biggest businesses this continent has ever seen,” he added.

An amount totaling to UGX 100 million in prize money was set aside for the Investment Club challenge including regional draws carried out in different parts of the country. Additionally, one delegate from each of the 20 selected clubs that enteredthe competition is to be sponsored to attend a study tour in Nairobi in January 2019. This as the top seven(7) clubs will receive free advisory services for a period of one (1) year courtesy of PwC.

The Various Winners of dfcu bank battle for cash challenge