Mityana SS shines as youth innovation takes centre stage at 2025 Enterprise Challenge National finals

Uganda’s brightest young innovators gathered in Kampala on Thursday for the 2025 National Enterprise Challenge finals, a showcase of the country’s most promising student-led enterprises.

The event, held at Pope Paul VI Memorial Hotel in Rubaga, brought together top-performing schools from across Uganda after a year-long journey of training, digital business simulations and regional competitions.

Mityana Secondary School emerged overall winner with its Mitesco Uni Plastic Solutions initiative.

St Thereza Secondary School’s Mukwano Charcoal Briquettes project took second place, while Kisojjo Secondary School finished third with its reusable sanitary pads innovation.

The national finals were organised by Asante Africa Foundation in partnership with King’s Trust International (KTI).

The collaboration sought to prepare young people for an evolving labour market where opportunities in the formal sector remain limited.

Grace McCatty, a representative of King’s Trust International, said the partnership was anchored in the need to address global youth unemployment through early entrepreneurship training.

“We know that only a small percentage of school leavers in many African countries secure formal jobs,” she said.

“Our focus is to ensure the remaining majority have the knowledge, confidence and tools to build their own opportunities.”

Ms McCatty explained that KTI works exclusively through local partners who understand community realities.

“Everything we do globally is through organisations rooted in their communities..Since 2019, Asante Africa Foundation has been that partner for us in East Africa, helping us reach young people where it matters most," she said.

She added that the Enterprise Challenge Programme takes students through seven school-based sessions and a digital pop-up business simulation game, before progressing them to regional and national pitch competitions.

“We want them not just to learn about business but to apply it, test ideas, and eventually pitch solutions to real community problems,” she noted.

Asante Africa Foundation CEO, Mr Geoffrey Kasangaki, said the initiative helps rural youth turn local challenges into economic opportunities.

“We work with young people from last-mile communities who often lack access but have incredible potential,” he said. By giving them the right skills and mindset, we are raising job creators at a time when the country struggles with unemployment," he said.

He emphasised the urgency of empowering young Ugandans, noting: “More than 70 per cent of our population is under 30. The formal job market cannot absorb them,” he said. “Entrepreneurship becomes not just an option but a necessity.”

Mr Kasangaki said the foundation has worked in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania for two decades, directly impacting more than 50,000 young Ugandans and strengthening the resilience and confidence of over 1.6 million youth across the region.

“Each year, more than 10,000 young people go through this programme across East Africa,” he said. “Their innovations show us that solutions to national problems can start in a classroom.”

He pointed to recent success stories, including a Tanzanian student whose project won a global women empowerment award, a Kenyan girl who kept her family afloat during the Covid-19 lockdown using a business developed through the programme, and a Ugandan student who received a global climate award recognised by King Charles.

“These stories prove that a small idea, when nurtured, can grow into something transformative,” he said.

Among the standout voices at this year’s finals was Agasha Owen from Makokoto Seed Secondary School in Kasanda District, whose team focused on vegetable growing and fruit processing to support the health of miners and young children.

“These programmes have helped me work with others and believe in my ideas,” he said.

“I want to become a doctor and a problem solver. I no longer see myself as a job seeker, I’m a job creator now.” Agasha added.

Presiding over the event, the Commissioner for Youth and Children Affairs, Mr Ngabirano Fred, praised the students for their articulate presentations and bold ideas.

“What we have witnessed today reflects the potential of our young people,” he said.

“These innovations are not small. They show that schools can be the starting point for solutions to community challenges.”

He added that the confidence displayed was evidence of the programme’s impact.

“The language, the clarity, the courage, this is the kind of generation we must nurture,” he said. “What they have shown here is not theoretical. It is practical and needed in our communities.”

As the nationwide competition came to a close, organisers and partners reaffirmed their commitment to scaling youth-led innovations and supporting young people to take their business ideas forward.

The event reinforced the belief that Uganda’s next generation of entrepreneurs is already emerging, driven by creativity, purpose and a desire to transform their communities.