The Wings to fly programme has provided 10,000 secondary school students with training since it was launched in 2010 by Equity Bank Limited and the MasterCard Foundation. Photo/CFM
With education, Dr Kirubi said, anyone is able to make it in life because it is the key to success.
“I used to sleep on the floor growing up. I had no parents, I lived off charity. But I believed I would rise out of my poverty,” Dr Kirubi told the scholars at the Wings to Fly initiative sponsored by Equity Bank and Master Card organized, “everyone is able to make it.”
Dr Kirubi was selected to address the scholars due to his vast wisdom and experience in leadership and business to be able to motivate the over 2000 potential leaders.
He also challenged young people in the country to take advantage of various government initiatives that are meant to empower the youth in business, including Uwezo Fund.
The programme aims to build the financial capacity and entrepreneurship of youth and women throughout the country.
The forum was graced by high profile personalities, including former United States President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea Clinton who are in the country ahead of President Barack Obama’s July visit.
“It gives me a lot of pleasure when I’m able to give support, accumulated wisdom and the little I can to encourage young people,” Dr Kirubi said and warned the youth against being used by politicians to cause mayhem in the country, ““Youths should not be used as a tool of trade like what is happening in Burundi…its only the youth who are throwing stones and ready to destroy the future of their country,” he lamented. “Do not lose your dignity just because you come from a humble beginning.”
He urged young people in the country to embrace technology while identifying various fields they want to pursue.
Dr Kirubi recalled how he was born and brought up in a humble background, “but that was not an excuse not to make it in life. The secret is hard work and determination.”
“Coming from a poor family has not stopped me from building the largest mall East Africa will ever see,” he stated in reference to a massive investment Two Rivers which he is putting up in Nairobi, “I am also the only black man, who is a director of Havard University.”
The Wings to fly programme has provided 10,000 secondary school students with training since it was launched in 2010 by Equity Bank Limited and the MasterCard Foundation.
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