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UGANDAN BILLIONAIRES: Dr Sudhir Ruparelia, Uganda’s richest and big-hearted billionaire Dr Sudhir Ruparelia is arguably Uganda’s richest man and one of East Africa’s wealthiest businessmen. His Ruparelia Group, comprising of over 28 companies, has tentacles in real estate, financial services, education services, hospitality, horticulture, media/broadcasting and most recently, labour externalization. But he wasn’t born rich- he is your basic started-from-the-bottom-now-we-are-here businessman. From being a 17-year old student, he suddenly found himself on London streets looking for a job, after President Idi Amin had expelled Ugandans of Asian origin in 1972. After failing to join the UK’s Royal Armed Force’s he did several jobs, including being a supermarket attendant, to being a cab driver as he juggled his studies until he finished High School. In 1985, he returned to Uganda armed with about $25,000 in savings and since then, he has never looked back. Through a series of greenfield investments, acquisitions, joint ventures and expansions he, with the support of family, has grown the Ruparelia Group into a well over USD1.2 billion conglomerate and still growing.
A prolific businessman, Dr Sudhir is known for his being a results-oriented and a people-person business leader. It is these skills that have helped create No.1 brands in almost all the sectors/categories where he operates.