Over the past few years, the Nedbank Ke Yona Team Search has become an institution in unearthing future football stars, with thousands of aspirant footballers participating in the initiative since inception.
Through the Ke Yona Team Search, Nedbank has transferred meaningful life skills to participants beyond professional football training, which was aimed at equipping them with, amongst others, financial education through workshops facilitated by experts to help make a meaningful difference in their lives and their communities.
Following a robust review of our sponsorship approach, a decision has been taken to place emphasis on driving financial education more robustly aligned to our overall intent and purpose to be money experts who do good.
As such, we will not continue with the Ke Yona Team Search, rather, we will build on the financial education element of the Ke Yona Team Search and the recently introduced Football and Finance Summit, which seeks to encourage money conversations amongst footballers, both current and former, with a view to impart much needed knowledge backed by financial experts.
The Ke Yona Team coaches and management were consulted and informed simultaneously of the bank's decision.
As a long-time supporter of football, we remain committed to investing in the development of aspiring footballers through our continued support of grassroots initiatives such as the Nedbank Grey College Soccer Tournament, and the Nedbank Soccer Development Programme in partnership with The Sports Trust.
We will also continue our backing of South Africa's most prestigious football knockout competition, the Nedbank Cup.