At a Glance
- Family-owned conglomerates dominate Uganda’s manufacturing, real estate, agribusiness and consumer goods sectors.
- Self-made multimillionaires built durable business groups through reinvestment, diversification and long-term local focus.
- These empires shape employment, infrastructure investment and capital flows across Uganda and East Africa.
Uganda’s economy is shaped less by public companies and more by privately owned business groups built by self-made multimillionaires.
Across manufacturing, real estate, agribusiness, hospitality and consumer goods, these conglomerates form the backbone of the country’s private sector.
Unlike stock-market-driven economies, Uganda’s leading businesses were built through family ownership, long-term reinvestment and control of key domestic markets.
Many began as trading operations before expanding into vertically integrated groups with regional reach across East Africa.
Together, these business empires employ tens of thousands, anchor capital investment and influence infrastructure development, urban growth and industrial policy.
Despite currency volatility, regulatory shifts and regional instability, their owners have shown an ability to adapt, diversify and preserve capital over generations.
Shore Africa profiles 10 of Uganda’s most influential business groups and the multimillionaires behind them.
1. Sudhir Ruparelia
Ruparelia Group
Uganda’s largest privately held conglomerate, with interests in real estate, education, hospitality, and finance. Built from modest beginnings, Sudhir Ruparelia turned savings from odd jobs in the UK into the country’s most diversified business empire. After returning to Uganda in 1985 with $25,000 saved from odd jobs in the UK—following Idi Amin’s expulsion of Asians in 1972—he launched a beer import business and foreign exchange bureau, later founding Crane Bank, once among Uganda’s top lenders. Though Crane Bank was controversially taken over in 2016, Uganda’s Supreme Court ordered its return in 2022. Dubbed the “Landlord of Kampala,” Ruparelia owns more than 200 commercial properties and premium hotels under Speke Group, including the decisive acquisition of the 14-storey Lotis Towers (now Arie Towers), which was finalized in 2024. Once valued at $800 million in 2015, his fortune has shrunk to around $250 million, reflecting both market volatility and mounting liabilities across his business portfolio across sub-Saharan Africa. His holdings include Premier Roses, Kampala International School, Victoria University, and Goldstar Insurance. In 2025, he faced personal tragedy with the loss of his only son, Rajiv. Still, Ruparelia remains an enduring force in East Africa’s private sector, with a legacy built on resilience and expansive investment.
2. Karim Hirji
Dembe Group
Karim Hirji’s Dembe Group spans hotels, automotive distribution, media, and real estate. One of Uganda’s most discreet tycoons, Hirji has steadily expanded across East Africa while maintaining a low public profile. His conglomerate, Dembe Group of Companies, spans sectors such as hospitality, automotive, media, and finance. Hirji is the owner of the Imperial Hotels Group, a leading hotel chain, and Dembe Enterprises, which has expanded into a vast network including a radio station, an automobile dealership, and an amusement park. He also owns Cham Towers, a prominent property in Kampala once known as the Uganda Commercial Bank Towers. Having started in textile trading and later venturing into alcoholic beverages, Hirji’s entrepreneurial vision has shaped Uganda’s business landscape, positioning him as a key figure in the country’s growing economy.
3. Sikander Lalani
Roofings Group
Founded by Sikander Lalani, Roofings Group dominates Uganda’s steel manufacturing sector. Lalani, a trained histopathologist, pivoted into industry, building one of East Africa’s most important manufacturing exporters. After starting with a Philips electronics store and Goodyear tyre distribution in 1970s Rwanda, Lalani ventured into roofing materials production—securing a $1 million World Bank loan to set up his first factory in Kigali. Following the 1994 genocide, he relocated to Uganda, where he founded Roofings Group, now a leading steel conglomerate with three large manufacturing facilities. Over two decades, Lalani has built an empire supplying steel products vital to Uganda’s infrastructure and construction boom. With extensive impact in the manufacturing sector, his entrepreneurial journey—from medicine to industry, underscores his role as a pillar in Uganda’s industrialization.
4. Drake Lubega
Jesco Industries Limited
Drake Lubega built Jesco Industries into a major real estate and manufacturing group. His rise as a property mogul has reshaped Kampala’s skyline, though not without controversy and regulatory scrutiny. This real estate empire owns swaths of land and key commercial properties in Kampala and beyond. Nearly half the buildings in Kampala’s city center are linked to Lubega, reflecting his dominant grip on Uganda’s urban property market. Through Jesco, incorporated in 2005, Lubega has steadily expanded his footprint, leveraging strategic land acquisitions and rental income. Despite a 2019 conviction for producing substandard goods and forging regulatory labels, Lubega’s business influence remains significant. His story is marked by the rapid accumulation of real estate assets and the quiet dominance of Uganda’s skyline, solidifying his place among East Africa’s wealthiest property magnates.
5. Amos Nzeyi
Crown Beverages
Amos Nzeyi chairs Crown Beverages, Pepsi’s bottler in Uganda, alongside interests in hospitality and finance. His businesses play a central role in consumer goods distribution and employment creation. A part-owner and former board chair of Crown Beverages, Uganda’s Pepsi bottler, he also owns Hot Loaf Bakery, a major player in Kampala’s baked goods market, and the historic White Horse Inn in Kabale. Once co-owner of Nandos Uganda and a founding investor in the defunct National Bank of Commerce, Nzeyi’s footprint extended into financial services. He has held influential roles, including board member at Uganda Development Bank and chair of the Uganda Manufacturers’ Association, where he championed industrial growth. In 2018, he became Mauritius’s first Honorary Consul in Uganda, marking a diplomatic milestone. Nzeyi’s legacy is not without controversy. In 2008, he was linked to the Temangalo land deal involving Uganda’s National Social Security Fund. Though the $5.57-million sale went through, it triggered investigations that led to high-level resignations and public scrutiny.
6. Hamis Kiggundu
Ham Group
Led by Hamis Kiggundu, Ham Group has grown into a multinational real estate-driven conglomerate with operations across Africa, Europe, and North America, reflecting a new generation of outward-looking Ugandan capital. His ventures span real estate, agro-processing, education, logistics, and more, employing over 7,000 people globally. In 2024, his Ham Agro-Processing Industries began setting up Integrated Agro-Processing Industrial Parks (IAIPs) in Uganda’s key agricultural zones, focusing on high-value food processing and export promotion, particularly to markets in the EAC, COMESA, the EU, and the Gulf States. Kiggundu’s efforts to modernize Uganda’s industrial infrastructure and his growing presence in the global market place him as one of the country’s most influential business figures.
7. Alykhan Karmali
Mukwano Group
Mukwano Group is one of Uganda’s largest industrial employers, producing edible oils, soaps, and consumer goods. Under Alykhan Karmali, the group has modernized agro-processing while retaining family ownership. With roots in the family business founded by his grandfather, Ali Mohamed Karmali, in the early 20th century, Alykhan has grown Mukwano Group into a major player in Uganda’s manufacturing and real estate sectors. In 1995, Alykhan took the helm of the business after his father, Amirali Karmali, handed it over to him. The group’s growth includes significant investments in sectors like textiles, packaging, and agriculture, cementing its reputation as a key driver of Uganda’s industrial landscape. Beyond his business leadership, Alykhan has been involved in banking as a non-executive director of Exim Bank Uganda, where Mukwano Group holds a 36.5 percent stake. His legacy is built on a foundation of resilience, innovation, and the enduring spirit of entrepreneurship passed down from his grandfather, who was known as “Mukwano gwa Bangi” (Friend of Many).
8. Ahmed Omar Mandela
Mandela Group
Ahmed Omar Mandela oversees a multi-sector empire spanning hospitality, oil distribution, manufacturing, and automotive services, positioning the Mandela Group as a key player in Uganda’s industrial supply chain. His flagship brand, Café Javas, revolutionized Uganda’s dining experience, growing to over 12 locations in Uganda and Kenya, generating an estimated $30 million in annual revenue. Mandela also founded City Oil, a premium fuel distribution company with over 15 stations and revenues exceeding $50 million. Additionally, his automotive ventures sell over 3,000 vehicles annually, solidifying his position as a leading figure in Uganda’s growing economy. Despite setbacks, including a costly expansion into South Sudan, Mandela continues to focus on strategic diversification, aiming to expand into real estate and tech-driven ventures. His disciplined approach to financing and growth underscores his ambition to redefine Uganda’s business landscape.
9. Mohammed Hamid
Aya Group
Chaired by Mohammed Hamid, Aya Group operates across food processing, logistics, hospitality, and agro-industry, with significant investments that support Uganda’s export and manufacturing capacity. After arriving in Uganda from Sudan in 1987 to visit his elder brother, Hamid stayed and began building his empire from the ground up. He launched Pan Afric Commodities in the early 1990s, later expanding into wheat milling, baking, and large-scale trucking across East and Central Africa through Panafric Transport. In 1997, he acquired 15 acres in Kawempe, Kampala, where he established a milling hub that would later evolve into a diversified manufacturing base. His landmark venture, Aya Investments, developed the $300 million Pearl of Africa Hotel, an architectural icon launched in 2017 by President Yoweri Museveni. Hamid’s foresight and vertical integration strategy have made Aya Group a formidable player in Uganda’s private sector. In 2018, Forbes named him among the top five young African millionaires to watch.
10. Godfrey Kirumira
GKK Group
Godfrey Kirumira’s GKK Group holds interests in fuel distribution, real estate, and private security, reflecting a diversified approach to capital deployment in Uganda’s high-growth urban sectors. His company, Bargary Company Limited, operates twelve petrol stations under the Gelp brand, both within and outside Kampala. Kirumira also controls Nabugabo Updeal Venture Limited, a significant player in general merchandise and import/export. As the chairman of Kwagalana Group, a club of Uganda’s wealthiest tycoons, Kirumira plays a central role in shaping the country’s business landscape. His entrepreneurial journey is underpinned by a strong commitment to empowerment and prosperity, aligned with his philanthropic efforts. His influence as a businessman and Honorary Consul of Namibia to Uganda remains a defining aspect of his legacy.
