There is a highly competitive atmosphere at Gayaza High School, as students representing 200 schools across Uganda, begin the boot camp stage of the annual Stanbic National Schools Championships.
The 11th edition of the Stanbic Bank sponsored competition is running under the overall theme ‘Powering Innovation for Job Creation’ with the 2026 tagline being: ‘Flex your Genius’.
The best performing schools and alumni will have a chance to share in the total cash prize of shs150 million after the finale in August including an all expenses paid trip to South Africa.
The boot camp, which started on Monday, will run for five days with a major focus on training teachers and students in Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation.
Many participants have expressed their excitement for the opportunity to showcase their ideas and benefit from the sessions of the mentorship to make for improvements.
Last year, Sumayya Girls’ High School in Nsangi was crowned the overall winner of the 10th edition with their innovative Uro-Care UTI Detector strip. This is an early-detection kit designed to help, especially young women, identify urinary tract infections before complications arise.
Linda Nansubuga, a teacher from Kololo Senior Secondary School said, “I expect to have some financial insight into startups building all the businesses. Because looking at the time that I’ve been attending this, I’ve really got so many financial business ideas. I recently started a business much as it collapsed but I know in business we expect losses, we expect profits, and we expect to learn and relearn…”
Participants have the opportunity to interact with mentors through a variety of training sessions including psychosocial/stress management, personal financial management, sales, marketing, packaging and branding, in addition to getting the basics about pitching their ideas.
“I expect to make friends and thrive in different key areas, like the business model canvas where we have to create a business plan and pitching,” said Onan Saverio-Louis Cornelio, a student from Kabojja International School.
The competition includes two main categories: The Student Spark Challenge for schools with innovative ideas and the Business Fellowship for alumni students and teachers from previous seasons (2024–2025) to further refine their businesses.
Diana Ondoga, the Corporate Social Investment Manager at Stanbic Bank said the boot camp is aimed at mindset change among learners between the ages of 13 to 18. “The program also seeks to extract what exists in these learners and get them ready to be a part of solutions to the challenges in society,” she said.
She added; “The championship complements the curriculum changes introduced by the Ministry of Education about five years ago, in the sense that it is an initiative that allows students to practice what they are learning in preparation for the future.”
To date, the Championship has impacted over 600,000 students, teachers, and community members during the past 10 years- fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. The initiative has grown to generate over 600 business ideas annually, aiding in the creation of over 200 new businesses across various sectors.
