valuraha-blog

[valuraha-blog]

Erick Mutunga, 18 year Starehe Boys’ Centre student impressed us all with his sharp and aggressive investment and entrepreneurial skills that allowed him to convert 5,000 KES (50USD) into 40,000 KES in a span of one year. That’s a whooping 800% return on investment! Not many people can brag of such especially at the age of 18. 

How did he do it? Watch the video to learn more.

For those who like spoilers - through peer to peer lending, and then rabbit and goat farming. 

Keep up the good work Erick. You have a bright future ahead of you! 

[valuraha-blog]

Maysarah Gulam is a 16 year old Precious Blood Riruta student. She intends to study medicine and become a doctor in the near future. She decided to try out business and investing through the Valuraha Investment Club. 

Much to her surprise, she performed really well in the Valuraha Investment Challenge, earning herself a place in the Mucheru Challenge - a challenge in which students are given 5,000 KES (50 USD) and told to invest in anything legal for a period of 1 year. 

The video captures her journey, detailing how she was able to convert 5,000 KES into over 21,000 KES making over 200% return in less than a year.

[valuraha-blog]

Valuraha’s Mucheru Challenge Teaser. Stay tuned to find out more about this challenge/social experiment. 

[valuraha-blog]

Starehe’s Valuraha Club Awarded Champion Club of the Year by Chris Kirubi

We had the pleasure of receiving Guest Invitations to the 57th Annual Founder’s Day at Starehe Boys’ Centre. Our club, Valuraha Investment Club, had been nominated as the best club in the school as was set to receive an award from Dr. Chris Kirubi, who was the guest of honour. The School’s Patron, His Excellency, Former President, Mwai Kibaki was also one of the chief guests. It was such an honour to celebrate the day with the Starehe community! It’s days like those, achievements like those, and invitations like those, that remind us of the importance of the work that we are doing. They are the fuel to our fire!

We were also met with yet another pleasant surprise. The club’s success was featured in the School Magazine. It looked like this:

This is what it reads:

By Franklin Mwangi,

“The business gurus were at it again! This time with a hefty check of a cool Ksh. 60,000. The wide smiles and jovial mood was more than a clear indication that it was a mission performed successfully. Now a recap of last year’s thrilling victory of the new kids on the block. Friday morning of July 15th found the Valuraha members with baited breath. It was D-day for the Valuraha Business Plan Competition at Strathmore Business School. A total of 10 teams had been shortlisted from a possible fifty plus teams. Starehe, with its unequalled grandeur had managed to produce two teams of the 10 shortlisted. I happened to be a key player in one of the teams. We had indeed burnt the mid-night oil and worked tirelessly to perfect our PowerPoint presentation ready for showcasing.

We were ferried to the venue and the sight of notable schools greeted us. Schools of great import as Lenana School, Alliance Boys’, Alliance Girls’, Kianda School and Kenya High School among others had converged to make up the cesspool of young brilliant investors. The ball was set rolling in no time and the audience in the auditorium was treated to an action packed competition.

At the end of it all, Starehe was thumping its chest in victory, glamour and pride. We had managed 1st runners up with the tireless efforts of Derrick Bundi, Richard Kimotho and I. The top place was secured by the underdogs who presented us with a first sight at a lesson in underestimation; Kibera High wowed us with their business acumen. However, Starehe remains unparalleled in all aspects and fine products assured in all fields. The patron, Mrs. Luyai was lost beaming as she took pride in the boys that had lived up to the billing.

So no one may ask, what exactly is Valuraha investment Club and what role does it play in the system? Valuraha is now 2 yrs old as a club at our school and has clearly been a force to reckon with lately. It is a club which is “virtually” in existence. The club boasts of no fully furnished clubroom, rather it is based on online portfolios and accounts. The members are no more than fifty but consist of the most innovative brains in the school-if I may-Not a chairman but lively and avid CEO is at the helm. For this year that young man is Alban Mwangi, the bearded chief oversees the entire clubs’ activities as well as ensuring smooth sailing for all.

So this club is for business oriented students, those with a knack -or believe they do- for investing, entrepreneurship and stocks among other business areas that may be of interest. Members utilize the I-Hub facility to manage an online virtual portfolio where one can deal with transaction of shares. Valuraha empowers high school students with the essential business skills to enable them to purchase bonds and treasury bills. After all, we go to school to acquire credentials that will make us wealthy in life.

Indeed, Valuraha deserves the title “Champion club of the year”. The skills imparted are extremely practical and have a ripple effect on one’s life. And the goodies that come along are even more enticing. Last year’s champions were treated to a savory lunch by top notch CEOs. Aside from that, five teammates bagged a cool Kshs.10000 each in cash. Majority of Starehe students console themselves that the money is virtual but let me clear the wind, the “chumz” are real. So, for the young Chris Kirubi aspirants or the next Manu Chandaria, the journey begins at Valuraha. This is the club where powerful magnates are nurtured. In short, watch this space. This is where the next generation of billionaires is going to come from. Long live Valuraha!”

We couldn’t be prouder of our young men from Starehe! We hope that you will keep on slaying!

[valuraha-blog]

Valuraha Business Plan Competition - Schools Edition

Valuraha’s mission is simple - to inspire, educate, connect and grow young investors. We believe that it’s important for young people to know that they can make money without stealing. There are various ways we do this… We have the Valuraha Investment Club that is operational in schools, our virtual trading platform, trainings, competitions, and actual funding of investments or businesses. We believe that if we culture young people to invest and run enterprises, we will transform this country!

Initially, we focused a lot on analysing existing investment opportunities (shares, bonds, unit trusts etc.) but our community told us that they wanted to invest in businesses. They wanted to run projects, make profit, and continue reinvesting in those businesses. When our community speaks, we listen… and that is why we held the very first Valuraha Investment Challenge - Business Plan Edition on Friday, 15th of July, 2016 at the Strathmore University Auditorium.

Valuraha club members spent the better part of the school term identifying business gaps in and outside their schools, creating business plans, raising capital, negotiating with suppliers and selling their products. We are very proud of the businesses that came out of this challenge: branded scarves business from Lenana School, School Magazine in Alliance Girls, Candy Company from Precious Blood, rabbit rearers from Monshama School, Laundry Mart from Kenya High School… the list is long!

How it started

Valuraha Club Members from 14 schools formed groups in May, 2016. Each group came up with a business idea to compete in the Valuraha Business Plan Competition. Some of the schools are: Starehe Boys’ Centre, Limuru Girls’ School, Kenya High School, Precious Blood Riruta, Kibera Glory School, John Paul II, St. George’s Girls’ Secondary School, Alliance Girls’ School, Alliance High School, New Horizons School, Kibera Girls’ Soccer Academy and a few others.                                                                                                                     

Mentorship

In addition to the Valuraha Curriculum that is available to the club members, we also had Valuraha club patrons and mentors guiding the students in their research and the execution of the business plans. The students could not have done it without the assistance of these teachers and mentors. We are indebted to them!

Creating Business Plans

Club members wrote business plans comprising of executive summary, industry description, market description, product plan, operations plan, marketing plan, financial plan and exit strategy.

Raising Capital

The competition required the students to come up with business plans but they were encouraged to run the businesses as proof of concept. This involved raising capital. In some groups, students contributed money from their pocket money, others used prize money they received from the Mucheru Challenge while others sought assistance from the 3 f’s - friends, family and fools. An individual’s contribution determined the number of shares (s)he owned in the business.

Learning by Doing

Having prepared the business plans and raised capital, the groups started running their businesses, with 90% of the businesses being able to make initial profit.

Mini-competition

Over 50 groups submitted their business plans for shortlisting, but only 11 were selected as finalists. These were the chosen 11.

The final competition

We brought together an interesting panel of judges that comprised of entrepreneurs, private equity investors, business coaches, and bankers. They included Tabitha Njuguna of Strathmore University, Jerry Crossan of LelapaFund, Silvya Kananu of Sinapis, Valary Mumbo of Acorn Group Africa and Jason Masai of Barclays Bank.

Regina Gichuhi, Head of Citizenship at Barclays Bank Africa kicked off the event by introducing the students to the Barclays ReadytoWork initiative which empowers youths with practical skills useful both in the workplace and self-employment.

Each of the 11 groups presented their business plans in 10 minutes and was given 5 minutes to answer questions from judges/audience.

Winners of the Business Plan Competition 2016

Lafya Group from Kibera Glory School won the first prize (KES 100,000)

Lafya Group will be selling solar powered lamps in their community - Kibera, as a solution to curb the frequent fires that take place due to the use of firewood or kerosene. They intend to grow into a large solar energy company powering hundreds of thousands of Kenyans. 

Arty Party from Starehe Boys’ Centre won 2nd place (KES 60,000)

Arty party is in a creative business, supplying custom designed envelopes for sending mail inter-schools, cards, bookmarks, etc. They already had traction, selling more than 100 envelopes within their school, and putting together a team of artists.

Monshama Rabbits won the third prize (KES 40,000)

Monshama rabbits are in the business of rearing rabbits for sale. They want to make ordering rabbit meat at a butchery as simple as ordering beef. They intend to begin in their school, offering rabbit meat as part of the menu in the cafeteria, and scaling to small restaurants popularly known as ‘vibandas’ and butcheries.

Now what?

The prize money will be released to the three winning groups from August 2016 in phases to ensure that the money is used appropriately in running the businesses. Valuraha Group will support the students in running their businesses and will provide opportunities for additional investment. In addition to the three winning groups, Valuraha Group will support the other groups that will continue to execute their businesses. Candyland from Precious Blood Riruta, has already secured an interested investor in their business.

Valuraha’s mission remains to inspire, educate, connect and grow young investors. We thank all the people that continue to make it possible for us to do this. Our Patrons, mentors, club leaders, sponsors, Valuraha members’ parents, partners, and the Valuraha team! 

Want to join us?

To join this community of students, teachers and mentors who believe in financial literacy and financial freedom, reach us at hello@valuraha.com , 0725145899/0716056451

[valuraha-blog]

Recapping the Valuraha MoneyWise Boot Camp

Learning by doing...”

This was the main theme at the inaugural MoneyWise Holiday Boot Camp, which was held between the 18th-22nd April 2016, at Strathmore University. The camp targeted both members and non-members of the Valuraha Investment Club, who wanted to learn about personal finance and investing in a fun and practical way.

The participants were taken through an intense, week-long learning process, which included the ABC’s of finance, budgeting, tools for saving and investing, entrepreneurship and leadership. At the end of this, they made personal financial goals, which we hope they will use as motivation in their journey to financial independence.

They also got a glimpse of Kenya’s capital markets, through a morning visit to the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Here they had the opportunity to gain insights in what it takes to invest in shares, bonds, treasury bills and REITs. Terms such as IPO, derivatives and dividend policies were also comprehensively covered during this visit.

Another exciting activity during the week was the sessions with representatives from different industry players in the Kenyan financial sector. These included the Capital Markets Authority,who highlighted the importance of regulation in the capital markets, and Barclays Bank, who emphasized on the importance of saving from an early age.

There were breakout sessions, movie screening and a fiercely-contested round of Cashflow 101, which served to integrate learning with having a bit of fun. All in all, it was a great experience for both the participants and the facilitators, and we definitely look forward to many more MoneyWise Boot Camps. :-)

Special appreciation goes to the Capital Markets Authority, who were the sponsors for the event, for their invaluable support in making the event a success.

A huge thank you to Strathmore University for hosting us throughout the five-day period, and for their continued partnership with Valuraha Group.

We would also like to appreciate the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Barclays Bank of Kenya and NIC Securities, for making time to interact with our participants. We look forward to greater collaboration in future.

[valuraha-blog]

Valuraha MoneyWise Bootcamp

Haisah Aisya Joohary once said, “There is no one who would guarantee you the security, financial independence, and the lifestyle you want, except yourself.” 

However, while many individuals both young and old crave various forms of financial freedom, not all of them are equipped with the knowledge to be able to make the sound financial decisions that will lead to it. Valuraha, an organization that was originally founded and developed at iBiz Incubator, Strathmore University, has made it its mission to enable the achievement of this dream, by enabling students to understand and work towards financial independence at an early age.

Since its inception, Valuraha has been able to engage individuals aged 10 to 25 years in different activities and platforms aimed at making them increasingly financially aware, and intelligent. Starting with a virtual trading platform, which was their premier product, the organization through interacting with and responding to the needs of their consumers has developed new products. It established the Value Investment Challenge (VIC) that engages high school students in competitions on various aspects of finance and investments; such as the fundamental analysis of listed companies. Furthermore, in collaboration with Strathmore University’s School of Finance and Financial Economics, the company has developed a financial curriculum to equip students with important, and applicable knowledge on personal finance. The response and impact of the various products has been greatly positive, and it is for this reason that Valuraha will be hosting the Inaugural Valuraha MoneyWise Boot Camp.

The Valuraha MoneyWise Boot Camp, is a week-long programme targeted at those who may be interested in immersing themselves into the world of financial literacy, but may not be in a position to participate in the VIC. These are mostly the private and international schools that have different school calendars. The pilot programme will solely involve individuals aged 14 to 18 years, being in high school or having just completed high school. However, subsequent editions of the boot camp shall also welcome upper primary school pupils, in a separately and specially designed programmes.

Through the week, the students shall be engaged in class based delivery of the curriculum, with exciting and practical concept checks. The participants shall have an opportunity to visit the Nairobi Securities Exchange to have an actual feel of Kenyan financial markets, and will participate in finance and entrepreneurial based team competitions with exciting prizes up for grabs. Speakers from some of Kenya’s finest corporations, and representatives from the Capital Markets Authority shall come to engage the students on matters of finance, and leadership. By the end of the program, all students will have created bank accounts and CSDC accounts.

It is a week of guaranteed growth where students shall learn ways to become masters of their money. Consider this the first step on the path to a successful life outside the rat race.

Summary:

Venue                  :     Strathmore Business School

When                   :     18th to 22nd April    

Your Investment :     KES 12,500 per person which is inclusive of:

Valuraha Handbook

Virtual Trading Account

Visit to the NSE

Initial Capital for your Bank and CSDC Account

Certificate

Lunch and snacks :)

For more information, visit valuraha.com/bootcamp, call Faith (0727010210) or Wangechi (0725145899) or visit us at our offices Ground Floor Abcon House, Masaba Road, Upper Hill.

[valuraha-blog]

Imanda Chele - Valuraha Investment Club CEO of the Year

“Leadership is not a position or title, it is action and example…”

The above statement would best describe Imanda Chele, the Chief Executive Officer of the Valuraha Investment Club at Alliance High School. The form three student has been a club member since its introduction in 2014, and he describes Valuraha as “the club of his dreams.”

He gave his first presentation on Centum Investments in the first edition of the Value Investment Challenge, where he was also named among the top ten portfolio managers. This earned him a visit to Centum offices, where he got to experience life at one of Kenya’s leading investment companies. What impressed him most was Centum’s management style, and he concluded that for a company to succeed, it’s about the management, and not the numbers.

Imanda has been an avid investor since Class 6. (What were you doing back then? Spending all your allowance on Pinpops? :) ) His first investment was on a purchase of 5,000 Safaricom shares, at Sh. 5.00 per share, during their IPO back in 2008. In 2011, he  then added 3,000 Britam shares to his portfolio, which he had bought at Sh. 8.00 per share.He managed to do this by taking a loan from his mother, since he believed the shares were a good buy. The value of both shares has now gone up, with the current price being between Sh.17 for Safaricom and Sh.12 for Britam.

If he bought Safaricom shares at Sh. 5, that means he spent around Sh. 25,000. Given the current value of the shares, they are now worth Sh. 85,000. This gives a net value of Sh. 60,000 after paying the loan, a profit of 240%!

He also bought the Britam shares using a loan of Sh. 24,000. The current value of those shares is Sh. 36,000. After paying off his loan, he is left with a profit of Sh 12,000. That translates into a profit of 50% in four and a half years.

Seeking to diversify his investments, he recently purchased a heifer that cost him Sh. 70,000, with the aim of selling the milk produced. Of this amount, Sh. 10,000 was a loan from his father, while Sh. 60,000 was from his own savings.(Remember, this guy is in 16 years old!) Since his father supplies milk to KCC, it was not too difficult to begin this new venture, which he hopes will give him good returns.

Plans for the future?

Imanda hopes to become an economist. He loves reading about global economic affairs, as well as studying local companies’ performance in their respective industries. One of his favourite reads is ‘Predictably Irrational’, a bestselling book on behavioral economics by Dan Ariely.

Because of his exceptional leadership, Imanda Chele is the inaugural recipient of the Valuraha CEO of the Year Award. We hope that he will continue to inspire others and show that investing can be done at any age.

Want to see Imanda in action? Watch his impressive analysis on KenolKobil at the 2015 Value Investment Challenge, or visit the Valuraha YouTube channel.

You can also view his presentation on Slideshare, and maybe learn something new. :-)

[valuraha-blog]

Valuraha 2016 Begins!

It’s official! 

Our 2015 cycle is now over! A huge thank you to all those who contributed to the success of Valuraha 2015; we couldn’t have done it without you. :) Now it’s on to the 2016 cycle, which begins on 8th March 2016. Expect bigger, better things coming your way this year. We are super excited, and hope that you are too!

So what’s different this year?

The Value Investment Challenge (VIC):

After running two successful challenges, we decided that VIC could do with some change. So this time, the challenge will consist of different competitions that will take place over a period of one year. You have to register anew as a Valuraha Member on our platform in order to qualify to participate in these fun activities. Subscriptions will only be collected via mobile money or VISA payments. Students will sign up on student.valuraha.com. We want you to all be on the same platform so that the competition can be even more exciting!

Valuraha Business Plan Competition:

We noticed that a lot of you were interested in businesses as investment opportunities. This year, we will give you an opportunity to showcase your entrepreneurial spirit. Create a business plan, tell us how your business will make money, and face a panel of judges! As always, this will be done in groups of five, so gather your friends and make things happen! We will hold the final competition for this challenge on 15th July 2016. Shortlisting will take place on 24th June 2016. 

Valuraha Company Analysis Competition:

Financial markets offer a great opportunity to earn passive income for long-term investors. This is why it is important to know which companies to invest in. This challenge is pretty straightforward: carry out a detailed analysis of a listed company and give recommendations on whether to buy, sell or hold the company’s shares. The team with the best presentation and research wins! This shortlisting will take place on 20th January 2017, while the finals on 10th February 2017. 

Valuraha Virtual Trading Competition

Portfolio management will take place throughout the period of ~1 year, beginning in March 2016 and ending in February 2017. You will be given Sh. 200,000 virtual money and choose between investing in shares, bonds, treasury bills, unit trusts or fixed deposit accounts. We want you to manage your portfolios for one year. This is to give you enough time to grow them. We have also reduced your starting capital so that the challenge can be more realistic and practical for you. The top portfolio managers win!  

Prizes to be won in both challenges: KES 400,000 cash for investment, scholarships to study in Strathmore University, lunch dates with top CEOs, and other interesting prizes that you will love!

2. The Valuraha Camp:

To further our mission of financial inclusion, we will be running one-week programs for students during school breaks. These camps will be for primary school pupils and high school students. The first programs will run in April 2016. Here, students will learn about personal finance, saving and growing their money. There will also be lots of fun activities that will teach you about financial management in very interesting ways. We will also host mini-challenges throughout the week - the best way to learn is by doing! 

“Samaki mkunje angali mbichi.” For non-swahili speaking readers, this basically means “capture them when they’re young” :)

3. The Valuraha Handbook:

We have revised the curriculum to reflect the diversity among our members’ investment ideas and interests. So apart from teaching you how to analyse a company, we will include other topics such as entrepreneurship, alternative investments and how to build a good investment portfolio. The online version is available for those who register as members on the Valuraha platform. For non-members who are interested in building wealth, or members who want something to conveniently read and write on, a hardcopy is available at a small fee of Sh. 500.

We look forward to a wonderful year together! 

[valuraha-blog]

The First Cohort of the Mucheru Challenge

This is why The Mucheru Challenge was created to test the practical skills of the students who had been through the Valuraha program. The task assigned looked pretty easy at first: take Ksh. 5,000 and invest it for one year, and the person who makes the most money will receive Ksh. 100,000. However, as the participating students learnt, investing is a journey filled with ups and downs. The first cohort consisted of eight students from The Kenya High School, who had won the first edition of the Value Investment Challenge back in September 2014. Below is a summary of their experiences:

Sometimes we learn, sometimes we learn. Mary Nduku, certainly learnt! She bought 10 chicks at Sh. 300 as well as chicken feed with her 5000 shillings. 4 of them died, resulting to an initial loss of sh. 1200. She then made Sh. 700 from selling eggs and Sh. 2700 from selling the remaining chicken. After that, she moved to selling boiled eggs, which earned her Sh. 700. This led to a total of Sh. 4,820, representing a loss of Sh. 180. However, she gained invaluable wisdom from the entire experience.

Michelle Omondi chose to combine her passion for art with her love for business. She used some of the money to make Maasai sandals, which her mother sold on her behalf. The rest of the money went into buying canvas, brushes and paint. She did five paintings and managed to sell two of them directly. The other three are being sold by her father. She now has Sh. 8,000.

Maureen Chelangat also ventured into chicken farming, together with her aunt, and bought 16 layers for 300 each. They would then sell the eggs at the nearby market. However, during the subsequent holidays, she did not stay with her aunt. She thus could not properly evaluate her net worth, and only had the money she made in April. This brought her net worth to Sh. 8,640. She learnt that in investment, you have to be actively involved if you want to grow your money.

June Rose Etyang decided to join her aunt who sells clothes in Syokimau. She used the 5000 shillings to buy clothes in wholesale and sell at a margin. Her aunt did the selling when she was in school, and then she would give her the money during breaks. However, since she did not live with her aunt, she only had profit from April sales, which was 3800 shillings. Her final amount is Sh. 8,800.

Jenks Kemunto began by issuing soft loans, earning her 2500 shillings. She then decided to plant sukuma wiki and sell at the nearby market, since she lived near Mbagathi River. Her sukuma wiki flourished and so did her business. Unfortunately, after some time, the river flooded and swept her sukuma wiki away, and she could not continue with the business. this gave her a final net worth of Sh. 12,500.

Rose Muturi joined a chama that her mother is a member of. She was introduced to the chairlady, and negotiated for a deal that would see her earn sh. 200 a month for every sh. 500 she put in. This translated to income of sh. 2000 a month. After ten months, this translated to 20000 shillings, bringing the total amount she had to Sh. 25,000.

Faith Muthoni had quite the investment journey. After learning about bitcoin, she convinced her sister to sign up for a wallet and trade bitcoins on her behalf, making a 50% profit. She then ventured into peer-to-peer lending, where she would lend to her friends who wanted to attend parties and events. This earned her Sh. 13,000. From this money, she took out 10,000 shillings and invested in a small printing business, in exchange for 16% shareholding. Her combined net worth from the different ventures came to Sh. 33,660 + 16% private equity. Without, a doubt, she was the winner of the Mucheru Challenge and got a sweet Sh. 100,000 with which she could do whatever she wants.

All in all, the Mucheru Challenge proved to be ultimate learning experience for the participating students. This year, 33 students will participate in the challenge, with amounts ranging from Sh. 5,000 to sh 10,000. 

The student that grows the money by the highest percentage will walk away with Sh. 100,000. There will be a lot of monitoring throughout the process, with the students filling progress forms at the end of every month. We wish the students all the best in the challenge. May the best person win! :)

Oh, and remember this...

[valuraha-blog]

Recapping the Valuraha Investment Challenge -2015

On the morning of Thursday 11th February, all roads led to Alliance High School, Kikuyu. The Value Investment Challenge 2015 was finally taking place, after several months of preparation. The participating schools were Precious Blood Riruta, Lenana School, The Kenya High School, Starehe Boys’ Centre, Alliance Girls’ High School, Limuru Girls and the hosts, Alliance High.

The event kicked off with remarks from Mr. Eddy Njoroge, chairman of the NSE among many other prestigious titles; Mr. Peter Ng’eno, the MD- Kenya Unit Trust at UAP- Old Mutual Group; Dr. John Olukuru, Dean of Strathmore Institute of Mathematical Sciences; Wangechi Mwangi, Valuraha CEO, and the host principal Mr. David Kariuki.

The MCs for the day were Laban-Cliff Onserio, NTV business reporter, and Jessica Colaco of Brave Venture Labs. Also in attendance were Wallace Kantai of NTV, Joel Macharia from Abacus, Leonida Mutuku, a data scientist and Betty Mutimba, Startup Grind Nairobi director and Valuraha co-founder.

The students presented on various companies in the NSE 20-share index, and were assessed by a distinguished panel of judges. The analysis covered the company’s performance over a 3 year period, the industry performance, competitive advantage, macro environment and eventually giving a buy, sell or hold recommendation for the company.

The overall winners were KCB Group from Starehe Boys’ Centre. They gave an impeccable analysis of KCB Bank, detailing a target price of Sh.70 per share in the next 2 years as opposed to the then Sh.38, hence a buy recommendation. They won Sh. 50,000 which they must use to invest for a period of one year, and a lunch date with Peter Ng’eno, CFA, MD Kenya Unit Trusts UAP-Old Mutual Group.

In second place was a group from Precious Blood Riruta that did an analysis on Mumias Sugar. They gave a sell recommendation due to the fact that the company was highly unstable, and its niche in the market is threatened by new entrants and imports. They also recommended that the management should be restructured as they are linked to most of the problems the company is facing. They won Sh. 25,000 shillings which they must invest for a period of 1 year. They also won a lunch date with Peter Ng’eno.

In third place was also a group from Precious Blood Riruta that did an analysis of Bamburi Cement Company. They gave a hold recommendation citing that Bamburi shares shed 12% of value compared to 65% gain for East Africa Portland Cement and 31% gain for ARM Cement.  Investors are therefore advised to keep the shares until the turbulence in the market settles. They won Sh. 25,000 along with t-shirts. 

In 4th place was the group from Kenya High School that did an analysis on Kenya Airways. They too gave a hold recommendation. They said that companies in the airline industry always face turbulents at some point so perhaps we should not be too alarmed. They also said that with the new management things might improve. However, in the current economic climate, their recommended strategy for KQ is ‘wait and see’. 

The 10 best portfolio managers, who managed to make the most money on the online trading platform, were also awarded , as well as the 5 most keen portfolio managers were also awarded SH. 5,000 each which they must invest for a period of one year.

The best  boy and girl in the competition were Gerald Koskei from Starehe Boys’ Centre, and Stacy Njimu from Precious Blood Riruta. The reason they were the best performing is because they managed to maintain impressive virtual trading portfolios, emerging as one of the 10 best portfolio managers. Their teams were also in the top 3 in the best investment analysis category. As promised, they won full scholarships to study a degree of their choice in Strathmore University. 

All these 33 winners will then proceed to what we call The Mucheru Challenge. With the capital they have been given, they will have to invest for a period of one year. The person who is able to make the highest return on their money, will receive 100,000 KES. Here is a photo of the first winner of The Mucheru Challenge. She was able to grow 5,000 KES into 33,660 KES + 16% equity in a business in 11 months.

We thank UAP - Old Mutual Group for their great contribution as gold sponsors for the event. We also thank Eddy Njoroge and Hon. Joe Mucheru who each contributed Sh.100,000 as award money for the participants. We also thank Strathmore University for their valuable input as our knowledge partners and sponsors of the event. A big thanks to Laban Cliff and Jessica Colaco for serving as MC’s for the event, and last but certainly not least all the participants and attending members. Without your support, this would not have been possible!

Stay tuned for more on the 2016 Valuraha Calendar!

Open this link to view more photos from the event. :)

[valuraha-blog]

Value Investment Challenge - Schools Edition

You’re Invited! 

Following the success of the first edition, Valuraha is excited to invite you to the second Value Investment Challenge - Schools Edition, which promises to be a fun and interactive learning experience.

This event will showcase the financial literacy and investment education program that the Valuraha Club has been conducting in high schools through digital learning and structured competitions.

Students will be judged on their ability to present an in-depth analysis of a publicly listed company on the NSE, as well as their progress on the Valuraha virtual trading platform. This year we are glad to welcome new entrants to the competition, who hope to give our pioneer schools a run for their money.

The students will cover companies in the following sectors:

Agriculture, Energy and Construction eg. Kenol Kobil, Bamburi Cement Banking, Insurance and Investments eg. KCB, Stanchart Commercial and Services eg. Kenya Airways, ScanGroup

2 full scholarships to pursue degrees in Strathmore University, along with cash prizes of up to Sh. 200,000 will be awarded to the winners.

Guest of honour will be Cabinet Secretary ICT, Hon. Joe Mucheru. In addition to his speech, he will be awarding Sh.100, 000 to the best investor in competition he launched dubbed the Mucheru Challenge.

Keynote speech will be given by Peter Ng’eno, MD Kenya Unit Trusts, UAP - Old Mutual Group. Strathmore University will also announce an Executive Teacher’s Training that that they will be launching in partnership with Valuraha.

Strathmore University and UAP - Old Mutual are supporting partners and sponsors for this event.

Come support the next generation of market movers. All you need is an open mind that’s ready to learn from these young ones.

In Summary:

What: Value Investment Challenge - Schools Edition

Participants: The Kenya High School, Precious Blood Riruta, Alliance High School, Starehe Boys Centre, Lenana School, Alliance Girls High School etc. 

When: 11th February 2016 from 8.00am – 5.00pm

Where: Alliance High School (Boys)

Brought to you by: Valuraha Group, UAP - Old Mutual Group and Strathmore University

Interested in supporting the creation of a generation of young market investors, get in touch. 

hello@valuraha.com +254 725 145 899

[valuraha-blog]

The Mucheru Challenge - Jenks Kemunto

“Before deciding what to do with my money, I decided to make it grow by issuing out soft loans. My first (and only) loan was to my brother who at the time was very desperate for some quick cash. Looking back, he must have been very desperate because my interest rate was a non-negotiable 50% per month. I loaned him the Sh.5,000 and in a month, I had Sh. 7,500 in my pocket. That was the easiest money I ever made. The rest was much more difficult. I obviously never issued out any other ‘soft loans’ because everyone complained that the interest rate was too high.

With the Sh. 7,500, I decided to jump into my area of passion: Agribusiness! Our house is right next to Mbagathi River. In fact, the river passes through our compound. I knew that this would be perfect for the growth of Sukuma Wiki. I sourced for assistance from our househelp and my mother, and ventured in the planting and selling of sukuma wiki.

I planted them during the school holidays and requested my aunt to go sell them at the market near our home. It is a walking distance so I was not spending anything on transport. We also keep goats, and therefore I had manure for my sukuma. We would sell a bunch of sukuma wiki for Sh. 10, and in a day, would be able to sell as many as 50 bunches, making Sh. 500 per day. In a week, we were making Sh. 3,000. This continued for 2 weeks, but then our sales began to decline. We began making about Sh. 100 per day, and lucky to make Sh. 200 on a good day.

What I did not know about agribusiness is how much the weather affects the business. I learnt this when it rained so heavily one night, and I woke up to find sukuma wiki leaves floating in our farm, and the river. My farm was ruined, and so was my business. I did however make a net profit of Sh. 5,000 from selling my sukuma wiki, this was after giving my mum and househelp a small tip. :)

I look forward to continuing with agribusiness during the April holidays. I will treat the plants and ensure that they are even healthier. I will also do some construction to prevent flooding when it rains heavily. I’m so grateful that I have gone through these things. It has not been easy, but it has been rewarding, and I have learnt so much. Thank you to the Valuraha team and to Mr. Joe Mucheru for the great opportunity.”

Total Amount: Sh. 12,500

[valuraha-blog]

The Mucheru Challenge - Rose Muturi

We started a series in January 2016 based on the results that we observed from the Mucheru Challenge. When you give a form 2 student (16 year old) Sh. 5,000 and tell her to go invest for a period of 1 year, you really don’t expect her to come back with Sh. 25,000, do you? Well, Rose Muturi did...and here’s how she did it in her own words...

“I considered so many options before I finally settled on investing in a chama for a fixed monthly return. There was what I had learnt in Valuraha, but I felt that my money would not grow fast enough in the financial markets. It was also a bad year for the NSE. I wanted to do business but quickly realized that Sh. 5,000 was not enough to start the kind of business I wanted to start. 

I thought about chicken rearing but decided against it due to the amount of work that it would involve. I thought of giving the money to the Mini-Supermarket in our locality as a capital injection but lacked the confidence to walk up to the stranger and negotiate for a deal. I also thought about giving it to my church youth that sells Bibles, Rosaries, newspapers etc. My idea was to give them capital and earn from the profits that they make from the sales but I did not trust them enough to commit that money. Mandazis! I thought about them too, but I could foresee a lot of losses and events where I had to eat many mandazis to prevent them from going bad.

Eventually, my mother told me about a certain chama that she is a part of. The chama does events planning and hiring out tents and chairs. They also lend money to their members at an interest. When my mum asked me to put money with them, I did not trust her at first. The thing is, parents ask for money but they usually don’t know how to return it. I had to go see the chairlady of the chama before I agreed to invest my Sh. 5,000 with them. The chama is in Nyeri, where I live. They have very few competitors there and a large membership that means they loan out money to people regularly and receive interest. After trust had been established, negotiations began.

I told the Chairlady that I had Sh. 5,000 and I that I wanted a monthly return from this money. She immediately offered me Sh.100 for every Sh. 500 but I negotiated for Sh. 200 for every Sh. 500. She seemed shocked, but after several back and forths and counter offers, we settled on Sh. 200 for every Sh. 500. That meant that I was making Sh. 2,000 every month from them. Later on, I regretted not having negotiated for compounding interest on the money, but I consoled myself with the fact that no bank or SACCO would give me such returns on a monthly basis.

That was April 2015. I went to visit the leaders of the Chama in December to confirm that my money was safe and growing well, and indeed it was. Some of the people there were very curious about where I got the money or how I thought to do that. Then I started telling them about the Valuraha club and how we learn about investing and how we analyze companies. He was very impressed, said how he wishes he had something like that during his time in school.

It’s now February 2016, 10 months after I invested in the chama. I have made Sh. 20,000 from the initial Sh. 5,000 giving me a total of Sh. 25,000. I plan to withdraw the money during the April school holiday as I look for the next interesting venture. By then, I will be withdrawing Sh. 29,000. That will be a 580% increase on my initial investment.

A big thank you to the Valuraha team for opening my eyes, and to Mr. Joe Mucheru for the challenge. I have learnt so much.”

Total Amount: Sh. 25,000

Our team’s comment to this is a simple question? Is the chama looking for any more investors because we are definitely interested!

[valuraha-blog]

The Mucheru Challenge - Faith Muthoni

Almost a year ago, Joe Mucheru, former Energy Lead for Google in Africa, and currently, Cabinet Secretary of ICT in the Kenyan Government, met the winners of the Valuraha Value Investment Challenge. These were students from Kenya High School, one of Kenya’s most reputable high schools, who had grown virtual investment portfolios and done an excellent investment analysis of Equity Bank. As part of the mission to encourage students to begin investing at an early age, he gave them a challenge which was later on dubbed “The Mucheru Challenge” - which went like this... 

He gave each of the 8 winners he was dining with Sh. 5,000 and he told them to go and invest that money through any legal means. The person who would have grown that money the most in a period of 1 year, would then win Sh.100,000 which they would use in whatever way they pleased - hopefully to continue investing. This is the kind of teaching that is competitive, ensures that people put their best foot forward and provides lifelong, practical and useful lessons.

Here’s an account of what one of the winners has done, as told by her. 

”After being a virtual trader at Valuraha for nearly a year, my investing skills were put to the test through the Mucheru Challenge - making as much money as possible from 5,000 kenyan shillings over a one-year period. It seemed easy enough, until I got into the fine details. Naturally, I began by doing research on several investment options, many of which I had learnt about through Valuraha. I concluded that I needed something volatile enough to grow my money as fast as possible.

After doing research, I settled on bitcoin trading having understood the concept of blockchain technology. In April 2015, during school break, I managed to convince my elder sister to sign up for a wallet and purchase a couple of bitcoins for me through Bitpesa. I monitored their progress over a couple of months before finally deciding to sell them in early November (7 months), at a profit of nearly 50%, bringing my money to a total of Sh. 7,500.

Armed with the extra cash, I began looking for a new investment avenue. I finally decided to be lending my friends, at an agreed-upon interest rate - some call this Shylocking, I call it peer to peer lending. :) The main thing I would look at was how often they received their allowance, and the value of the loan compared to their allowance. After a while, I realized that I needed something that would make my loans more appealing, and more in demand. I went back to the drawing board, and brainstormed around what young people spend their money on. I finally came up with a workable plan, and remodeled my original plan to specialize in events.

Whenever any of my friends needs to attend an event, I loan them money to facilitate ticket charges and travel expenses, if necessary. They then pay me back with interest. Since most of them have just finished school, they are always in the mood for one event or another. I made an additional Sh. 13,000 in interest from lending. I now had Sh. 18,000 from the Sh. 5,000 that I had begun with. Turns out the lending business is quite profitable. ;)

In 2016, I took out some of the money and invested it into a printing business, in exchange for 16% shareholding. We hope to diversify from just printing and photocopying, and include making of personalized cards for our growing client base. In January, which was the first month of operation, we made total revenue of Sh. 81,000 in January, with a profit of Sh. 56,650 after operating costs. Since the business now has revenue, my 16% equity has also increased in value.

This experience has been quite eye-opening, and I’m glad I was given the opportunity to learn as much as I am. Thank you to the Valuraha team and to Joe Mucheru. Looking forward to great things this year!” 

Muthoni. 

Total Amount: Sh. 20,500 + 16% Equity in a Printing Business

[valuraha-blog]

Arms Wide Open for 2016!

I like the beginning of the year. It provides an opportunity to reflect on our lives and come up with resolutions and plans that make us feel really good about ourselves and get us all excited. It usually doesn’t last long, because well, we humans, flawed and all, tend to slip back into our old habits, but not this year, right? :D

In 2014, the cofounding team at Valuraha wrote a blog piece titled, ‘Why We Do What We Do.’ It was a perfect expression of passion, excitement, energy and naivety. We wanted to open finance to the world, and like the cliche goes, change the world. If you would have told us then, that in 2 years the 3-person-cofounding team would be down to 1 cofounder, we’d have laughed really hard. We’d also probably have told you, “That’s not us, we’re the real deal”. 

Well, what do you know! 2 years later, we were down to 1 cofounder - me. One of us, felt that that spreading financial education was not really where her passion lay, and went ahead to become the Chapter Director of Startup Grind Nairobi. A few months ago, the other co-founder felt that he did not want to focus on the target market that Valuraha was servicing and wanted to branch out to a different segment. We wish them all the very best, and continue to appreciate the support that they give Valuraha.

Earlier in 2014, we were lucky enough to have an angel investor supporting us, and in 2015, another angel investor joined the team. These 2 have been such strong believers in the vision of Valuraha, and where I have doubted my strength or capacity, they have acted as constant reassurance. We’ve also had support from other mentors/advisors who have shed wisdom and insight that was unbeknown to us.

So, here we are… 2016… We’ve grown from running our program in 3 high schools to signing up over 30 schools. 62% of the students in our program are transitioning to become investors. We have students trading shares, some trading bitcoins, others farming, many doing peer to peer lending, others running businesses during their holidays, the list goes on. We not only have repeat clients, we have impact. We get so excited when we receive emails from students (and some cases, their parents) telling us what they are doing and appreciating the impact we have had on their lives. It’s what keeps us rowing the boat despite the stormy tides.

We’ve also received numerous national and global recognition that has been very reassuring. This is from winning the Social Impact Award at the GSEA held in Washington April 2015, being named one of the top 40 under 40 women in Kenya in 2015, being selected as one of the 16 companies from the world (by Blackbox and Google for Entrepreneurs) to participate in an immersion program in Silicon Valley, to the President of Kenya visiting us and congratulating us for the program that we are running in schools, and stating that we should have operations in every school in the country.

Karibu 2016! We welcome all the opportunities and the challenges that you have in store for us. We look forward to working with our team, our mentors and advisors, alumnae community and teachers to deliver fantastic value to our community of clients.

As Hal Borland said, “Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us”. I’m choosing to be stronger, bolder and wiser in 2016. What are you choosing?