John Tallach reigns supreme at high schools quiz

JOHN Tallach High school from Matabeleland North province, came out tops in the inaugural Capital Markets high schools quiz competition held in Harare yesterday.

The quiz show was organised by Business Weekly, in conjunction with London-based Financial Markets Indaba (FMI).

The competition, which was held to enhance the students' knowledge and understanding of financial and capital markets, will run until November 4 2022. It sought to enlighten high school students on capital markets and the stock exchange and how the two contribute to economic development.

Twenty schools were pooled from the country's 10 provinces and are earmarked to compete for honours in the high school quiz competition. The inaugural session of the quiz competition saw John Tallach High School, Monte Casino Girls High School, Ruya Adventist, Nyamhunga High school and Lifelong College battle for honours.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SecZim) is the headline sponsor of the inaugural event while POSB is the gold sponsor. RANK Zimbabwe and First Capital Bank are silver sponsors while College Press and Milano Furnitures are bronze sponsors.

Hotplate grill chipped in with food as Delta provided soft drinks to support the event.

The initiative aims to foster the young generation's inclusion in financial markets, enhance financial literacy, and promote a savings culture at an earlier age. The competition touched on a myriad of elementary financial issues, but specifically with the main bias being on the inclusion of youth in financial matters.

While giving his official remarks at the event SecZim chief executive officer, Anymore Taruvinga, said his organisation was devoted to seeing the growth of capital markets participation among the general public, which he alluded could only be attained through unfettered provision of knowledge to the general public in order to clarify the phenomenon.

"SecZim, in conjunction with the Investor Protection Fund (IPF), is committed to seeing the growth of capital markets participation by members of the public – and this can only be done through providing information to demystify this space and open it up to the person on the street," said Taruvinga.

He said securities regulation is centred on protecting investors and having spent years shaping the capital market from an intermediary perspective, the focus had widened to include protecting investors from potential issuer abuse.

"We expanded our education and awareness programmes to benefit both issuers and investors. And that is what brings us to the capital markets Quiz as lead sponsor today."

Business Weekly editor, Herbert Zharare, said the idea was to inculcate a sense of managing finances at a tender age and wanted to shape future economic leaders. He said Business Weekly was working with corporates to help in nurturing the young minds to realise their dreams.

"Our motto is - setting the national business agenda. Gone are days when the media was only known for reporting what is said. By organising this High School Quiz, we want to be part of the national process of promoting financial literacy and inclusion. That is the reason why we have decided to run this quiz touching on broad financial and economic issues. To us, this is the long journey of creating future corporate leaders," said Zharare.