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Students awarded for winning essay writing contest

Tokelo Khausela

THREE high school learners were last weekend awarded for winning the My Future Financial Success Competition.

Run by financial services provider, TKO Consultancy, the competition ran from 11 February to 8 March 2022.

Motheo Mohlomi Letlotlo bagged the first prize while ‘Mapaseka Mapetja came second and Sebabatso Lephoto came third. The learners are from Letlotlo International School, Holy Family High and NULIS respectively.

TKO Consultancy ran the programme in collaboration with World of Words Foundation and the United States (US) Embassy.

The winners were handed their certificates and prizes last weekend in Maseru.

The competition was birthed after the global turmoil on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic. The organisers said they thought that it was imperative to educate students about finances while giving them a platform to tell their financial stories through essay writing.

The TKO consultancy founder, Tokiso Nthebe, said he saw a gap in people’s financial literacy.

“I saw how much people lacked knowledge in handling money so much that their relationship with money is often unhealthy,” Nthebe said.

“So, I took this opportunity to educate young people about money.”

Thato Chobokoane, a Mandela Washington Fellowship 2018 alumni and World of Words Foundation founder, said the name of the initiative was inspired by the focus on young people.

“Our selection criteria is based on relevance, organisation and mechanics,” Chobokoane said adding that all the winners showed pertinent initiative in telling financial and entrepreneurial stories.

Financial advisor, Nchakha Monyane said that the financial mentorship was a privilege because it would benefit them greatly in their decision making.

“Save the little money that you have. It will teach you about the compounding effect. At first, one may not reap benefits but in the long haul, you will reap the rewards,” Mr Monyane said to the participants.

Letlotlo received M500, a three months’ writing mentorship by Lipuo Mopene, a language and linguistic lecturer at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) and a trip to any district of his choice. During the trip, he is expected to shoot record a podcast with Nthebe on finances. The podcast will be published on YouTube.

The first and second runners-up received M300 and M200 respectively.

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