“Kites rise highest against the wind not with it,” Sir Winston Churchill the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once said.
In a country like Uganda, famed for having the highest number of entrepreneurs, but also chastised for having an equally high business mortality rate, he/she who rises against the tide to transcend the storm, does not only good for themselves, but does even more good for the rest of mankind.
This was the case of billionaire businessman, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, who chose to fight back against what he believes was the unjust and illegal closure of Crane Bank, where he was the second biggest shareholder by the central bank, the regulator. At a time when many thought he was done in and his attempts to launch a legal battle against a then holier-than-thou Bank of Uganda was futile, the businessman chose to fight on. Several months later, his fight is beginning to yield fruits, not only for him but also for the shareholders of 6 other banks closed by Bank of Uganda between 1993 and 2016.
And at the end of the day, the entire financial services industry will also benefit from Dr. Sudhir’s lone struggle for justice, should a string of reforms proposed by parliament and a raft of other experts, to shake down the extreme powers of the central bank, be adopted by cabinet and parliament and eventually passed into law.
At the time of closing Crane Bank, everybody had been made to believe- by Bank of Uganda, like had been in the case of the several other closed banks that owners of the failed banks were the villains and Bank of Uganda the Knight in Shining Armor, saving the day.
But as the country would come to learn in the subsequent Parliamentary inquiry and the court battles launched by Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia against the central bank, its lawyers and dfcu Bank, there was more than meets the eye. It would later surfaced that there were perhaps more villains and vultures at the Central Bank who took advantage of the problems of the troubled banks and instead of intervening to stabilize them, were more than eager to strike the deathblow and then, like vultures, zoom in on the kill- often for private benefit.
As the MPS on the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Commissions, State Authorities and State Enterprises (PAC – COSASE) were to discover, in nearly if not all the 7 bank closures, the Central Bank flouted several laws including the Financial Institutions Act (2004) under which many of the banks were closed. As if that was not enough, many senior central bank officials were found to have directly and or indirectly benefitted from the proceeds from the assets of the failed banks, many of which were sold at giveaway prices.
For daring to fight back- even though the legal battles are far from over, and for helping lift the veil off the rot at Bank of Uganda, the editorial team at CEO EA Magazine, nominates Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia as our inaugural Business Person of the Year, 2019.
Starting this 2019, CEO East Africa Magazine shall each year nominate, business persons whom our editorial team believes have had the greatest impact on business in Uganda and in the region both for the benefit of their businesses and for a greater common good.
2019 was a Ruparelia Group Year
Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, the chairman and founder of the Ruparelia Group empire despite a largely rough 2017 and 2018, opened 2019 on a high. In February 2019, PAC – COSASE released their report largely pointing a finger at Bank of Uganda for what they said was a negligent and illegal seizure and disposal of the assets of several defunct banks.
The MPs on the Hon Abdu Katuntu led committee found that the process of selling off the banks on several instances “contravened section 95 (3) of the FIA 2004” and lacked the principles of “prudence, transparency and fairness” enshrined in the constitution and the FIA Act and recommended that the BoU officials involved in the seizure and irregular sale of the banks be held responsible.
For Crane Bank whose UGX570 bn bad loan book was sold to dfcu Bank in a back door move, the committee found that BoU failed to observe principles of financial prudence and in the course breached their statutory duties provided under the FIA thereby financially disadvantaging Crane Bank Limited (CBL). They said BoU should “make good the loss occasioned to the commercially fair extent of the value of the bad loan book.”
Subsequently, the businessman also won related lawsuits against famous city law firms, Bowmans Uganda, MMAKS Advocates and Sebalu & Lule Advocates whom court found to be having conflict of interest in contravention of the Advocates (Professional Conduct) Regulations.
But perhaps, Sudhir’s biggest win came on August 26th 2019, when Commercial Court’s Hon Mr. Justice David K. Wangutusi, dismissed case No. HCCS 493 of 2017, in which BoU sought to recover from him UGX397 billion and 48 properties saying the case was incompetently before court and barred in law. This case triggered a red flag at dfcu Bank who have since indicated they are vacating the 48 properties handed to them by BoU and instead asked for a refund from BoU.
Letters to My Younger Self: Winnie Nakimuli—"You Are Worthy Simply Because You Exist"Winning inside and outside the courtroom
For those who thought the astute businessman had been written off following the closure of his bank, 2019 was yet another shocker as the businessman made a huge come-back on the property scene unveiling a number of multimillion dollar real estate projects and simultaneously breaking for new ones.
In May 2019, through his Meera Investments, Uganda’s largest real estate company, he opened Kingdom Mall- 10 storeys and 22,000m2 of Grade A retail and office space in the heart of Kampala. A month later, in June 2018, he unveiled Speke Apartments, Kitante- comprising of 83 fully furnished one, two and superior apartments, conveniently located on Kitante Close, off Yusuf Lule Road, in the affluent leafy lower Kololo.
Kabira Country Club, one of the Ruparelia Group hotels, in August 2019 also broke ground for the construction of 269 serviced apartments on Old Kira Road, just next to Kabira Country Club. The project involves serviced and full-furnished 1, 2 &3 bedroom apartments, with two levels of underground parking- altogether 62,000 square metres of built up space. The project according to Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, the Ruparelia Group Chairman will sit on 4 acres of land and will take 30 months to finish.
The Group also in 2019 announced plans to build Speke Resort and Convention Centre, Entebbe- a 5-star luxury resort in Entebbe town.
In September 2019, he unveiled a spanking new Electrical Plaza, a mixed-use property comprising of 220 shops and 56 apartments in the Central Business District on Plot 11 Market Street at the confluence of Market Street and Kiyembe Lane.
But he wasn’t done yet- in November Meera Investments unveiled Tagore Living- their first in a series of built-to-sell residential development projects. Made of 28 two and three bedroom apartments and located in Kamwokya-Kisementi, just a stone throw-away from Acacia Mall, the Kisementi shopping precinct, Kitante Golf-Course and the affluent Kololo neighborhood, the apartments are already on sale. Completion is due for early 2020.
More socially responsible businessman
2019 also saw the businessman fully hand over most of the day-to-day business management to his children- especially Rajiv Ruparelia who in 2017, at the age of 27, was appointed the Ruparelia Group, Group Managing Director and Sheena Ruparelia who is now a Group Director.
The transition has created more time on his hands allowing him to do more not-for-profit community work such as giving motivational talks, participating in charity events and other stakeholder engagement activities.
He for example in October captained a team of taxpayers in 1:0 soccer win against Uganda Revenue Authority at the very first URA Tax Derby at Legends Rugby Grounds. All proceeds, from the game- for every goal scored, went towards buying a motor boat for Bwama Primary School, in Lake Bunyonyi, to ease transport for children from the mainland to school.
A compliant taxpayer himself, his Meera Investments was in 2017/18 rated as a top rental income taxpayer by Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) while Dr. Sudhir himself was rated the second biggest individual rental income taxpayer.
2019 also saw his Ruparelia Foundation, a charity arm of the Ruparelia Group that he founded in 2012 with his wife, rack up activities especially in education, health and the environment.
The Ruparelia Group is made up of more than 28 different businesses- ranging from financial services, real estate, education services, hospitality, agriculture and media/broadcasting.
