Sifundzani JA champs going to Nigeria
MANZINI – Junior Achievement (JA), which has a new look, has announced Sifundzani High School as the 2022 champions and will represent the country at the Africa Competition in Nigeria.
This was announced by the Chairperson of Board of the Director of JAEswatini, Mluleki Dlamini, who was speaking through the voice of his Vice, Nothando Dlamini, during the 2022 JA Eswatini National Expo Competition, which was held at Esibayeni Lodge yesterday.
The Board chair said the JA Eswatini Company of the Year 2022 Competition had come to an end and he announced the top three schools. He said Sifundzani High School came first after making a time out power saver monitor, which essentially regulates electrical consumption in a household. He said they won E10 000 and they would represent Eswatini at the Africa Competitions to be held in Nigeria in December 2022.
Thereafter, Dlamini said Kukhanyeni High School got position two. He said the Kukhanyeni High School Company made a water pump from a closed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe, pipe reducers and check valves. He said they won E2 000 and Hlathikhulu Central
High School went away with E1 500 after inventing a solar water purifier. On another note, the chairperson of the Board said they were excited that they were there to celebrate the hard work of the students, who were the future entrepreneurs of the country and continent.
He said in their 13 years of existence in Eswatini, they covered milestones which they were proud of as they reached thousands of pupils in schools over the years, with capacity building on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and career development.
Resilience
Again, Dlamini said their national champions of the national expo have shown resilience and excellence in Africa, consistently. He said this had been evident in remaining in the top two for seven years in a row.
“We have no doubt that our approach and model is bringing out the best in emaSwati even globally,” the chairperson said.
He added that as this year’s winners will go to Nigeria on December 6, 2022 to compete with other African young people, they were confident that they would bring it home even this time around.
On another note, he said in 2018 they launched the Schools Cooperatives programme, which had taken strides to this day. He said this was made possible through the support from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Ministry of Education and Training, Republic of China (Taiwan) (through Ministry of Economic Planning and Development), Lubane Savings and Credit Coop and the private sector. He said the aim was to promote the culture of saving among students regardless of the level of income and background through formation of savings cooperatives in schools.
Once more, he said the digital gap and lack of access to resources, like laptops, still remain a stumbling block in a number of schools. In that regard, he urged partners to work together with them towards closing this gap so that even children in remote areas could access all resources equality.
Moreover, the chairperson said JA Eswatini was part of at least 123 countries that were part of JA Worldwide. He said this was why they also announced their rebranding, which was driven by the fact that their mother body had rebranded into new colours and logo for a renewed image and identity. He said the new logo brought out a component of peace in the blue colour and the triangle enforces the three pillars of JA which are; entrepreneurship, financial literacy and career development.