In a bid to catch them young, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is inviting all high school learners and university students interested in the investment world to register for the 2018 JSE Investment Challenge.

Ralph Speirs, Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Officer at the JSE, said the initiative would eventually address South Africans’ reputation as bad savers.

“The JSE believes that one of the ways to address this concern is through reaching out to the youth and teaching them about the importance of saving and investing from a young age,” Speirs said.

The JSE Investment Challenge runs until September.

Now in its 45th year the Challenge is South Africa’s largest financial literacy initiative.

Participants for both the Schools Challenge and the University Challenge are required to group themselves into teams made up of a maximum of four learners.

For the University Challenge, the top three prizes are valued at R60 000 (over US$5 000), with first place winners getting R25 000 plus an all-expenses paid trip to an International Stock Exchange..

For the Schools Challenge, each month the best performing school team in each Portfolio will win R3 000 per team. There are final prizes for the top five school teams to the value of R180 000 for all three portfolios.

Each team is given a virtual sum of R1 million which they can use to trade JSE-listed shares. This virtual arena allows young people to practise trading in a risk-free environment.

Speirs encouraged the youth of South Africa to register and broaden their understanding of how the stock market works.

“This is also an opportunity to prepare them for the future in the case when they will be earning salaries and needing the investing and saving avenues to put their monies.”
– CAJ News