State Minister of Trade Hon. Harriet Ntabazi has commended the annual Nile Breweries entrepreneurship campaign Be A Millionaire for its far-reaching impact across the entire economic landscape.
This, the minister noted, during the grand finale of the campaign on Wednesday, 19th October in Kampala, at which David Okidi, the proprietor of David Loura investments a fruit and vegetable growing company, emerged overall winner taking home UGX13M and a 50 inch TV.
“This campaign has changed the lives of traders and manufacturers, and boosted productivity and added value all the way to the grassroots. At the ministry, we have components of trade through induction and training, but we cannot do everything. Uganda is a private sector led country and this is the key for the winners here. This is why such initiatives are very important,” Hon. Ntabazi said.
En route to the triumph, Okidi beat four other contestants correctly answering three of the five questions in the five-round wits-testing quiz. This earned him UGX3M, to which was added the UGX10M bounty for the overall winner.
Priscilla Kisakye, the closest challenger, won UGX2M and a laptop. Third placed Kenneth Ojok took home UGX2M and a phone while Emmanuel Etyak and Ronald Okurut who emerged fourth and fifth won UGX1M and UGX500,000 respectively.
Addressing the participants, the NBL legal and corporate affairs director Onapito Ekomoloit congratulated the contestants noting that they were all winners because sport is more about participating than winning.
“We thrive on innovation as Nile Breweries and we promise the country that the best is yet to come,” promised Mr. Okomoloit.
The assistant commissioner for Youth, Min. of Gender, Labour and Social Development Hon. Kyateka F. Mondo acknowledged the knock-on effects of the campaign on the country.
“Every job created makes a difference because of the multiplier effect it comes along with. The biggest problem we have in this country is lack of gainful employment of the youth. Therefore thanks NBL for this gesture of love for the young people,” he said.
Over the three-month’s course of the campaign the participants were trained in numerous business aspects including how to turn their business profitable, the social impact of their businesses, value addition among others.
“We exposed them to key business competencies of successful entrepreneurs. We gave them innovation challenges, financial management challenges among others. We believe that all the participants that went through the two-day boot-camp can ably operate sustainable businesses,” said the Business Development Manager Enterprise Uganda Noah Wandera.
There were over 200 entries of which 50 entrepreneurs were shortlisted and mentored in a 2-day boot camp facilitated by Enterprise Uganda. The best 25 moved to the regional contest, a 5-week game show quiz challenge. Each week the champion proceeded to the next level, the national contest. The top 5 battled it out at the grand finale.