One of Hoërskool Westonaria‘s learners was announced the joint winner of the 2016 National Junior Accounting Olympiad (NJAO) for Gauteng West recently.

On Tuesday 8 November, Grade 9 learner Sbanehle Ntombela, was beside himself with joy when he was named number one in the Gauteng West region. He, along with all other regional winners walked away with a certificate, T-shirt and a Vodafone VF685 Smart Kicka.

“It is definitely a great privilege for us as this is only the second year we’ve entered,” Jaco Boshoff, Accountancy teacher at Hoërskool Westonaria said.

This Olympiad is held every year across the country and is presented by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and Sage One.

The NJAO recognises young accounting talent, and nurtures an interest in accounting as a profession among South African learners. It attracts entries from South Africa’s top high-school accounting learners, and this year a total of 3 904 Grade 9 learners from 416 schools around the country entered.

Other competing regions included Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, KZN and Limpopo.

“It’s exciting to see how much young accounting talent we have in this country. We are also pleased to see that the Olympiad is meeting its goal of getting high school learners enthusiastic about a career in finance,” Gugu Makhanya, SAICA’s Senior Executive Nation Building said.

Steven Cohen, Head of Sage One International said it is important to identify and build young accounting talent in South Africa as these youngsters will be the businesspeople and entrepreneurs that drive the country’s prosperity. He also congratulated all the pupils that entered.

“We are very proud of Sbanehle, he is a very sharp learner. We trust that he will reach even greater heights in future,” Jaco concluded.

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