East Cape student wins prestigious budget speech competition

Caleb Qoyo of Komani wowed some of the best thinkers in SA when he won the annual Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition, claiming a prize of R150,000.

Qoyo, 23, took first prize in the 47th round of the competition, where Nedbank and Old Mutual invited youth from tertiary institutions across SA to put themselves in the shoes of the finance minister by coming up with creative and workable solutions to a complex problem in the economy that could bolster growth and development.

His avid problem-solver mentality saw Caleb looking to the world of cryptocurrencies and the systematic risks associated with them, unpacking and simplifying the related issues in a detailed essay.

“From a young age, my parents encouraged us to read and write.

“This instilled a need to be hopeful, dream big and have goals for the future.

“As children of the Qoyo family, we were also blessed to have a very supportive structure, which I’m very grateful for,” he said.

Growing up in Queenstown’s townships meant Qoyo witnessed some of the country’s harshest socioeconomic realities.

“When I talk to people, they have a misconception that I must have gone to an economically high-end private school.

“I went to Kwa-Komani Comprehensive School and during my time there it was a good government school.

“I suppose one of the many reasons I entered this competition was to give hope to other youngsters with a similar background to myself that they, too, can dream big and achieve whatever they set their minds to,” he said.

Qoyo says his time in Komani allowed him to see government interventions such as social wages and job creation programmes differently.

He says it also showed him that too many poor South Africans did not understand how the economy worked and how to meaningfully participate in it.

The economics student from the University of Cape Town plans to start his own NGO in the socioeconomic field and has dreams of landing a corporate job so he can fund a master’s degree in development finance at the Graduate School of Business.

The 48th round of the Nedbank and Old Mutual Budget Speech Competition is now under way, with a group of undergraduate and postgraduate finalists already having been announced.

The competition will end in a gala dinner on the night of the budget speech by finance minister Tito Mboweni in February 2020, where the winners will be announced.