Sudhir Ruparelia was born on 17 January 1956 and is a Ugandan business magnate and investor.
24 Facts About Sudhir Ruparelia
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Sudhir Ruparelia is the chairman and majority shareholder in the Ruparelia Group companies.
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Sudhir Ruparelia's investments are mainly in the banking, insurance, education, broadcasting, real estate, floriculture and hotels and resorts sectors.
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Sudhir Ruparelia was born in Kabatoro, Kasese District in the Western Region of Uganda to an upper-middle-class Indian Gujarati family.
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Sudhir Ruparelia's great-grandfather reached Mombasa, Kenya in 1897 from India and set up a trading store there before coming to Uganda in 1903.
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Sudhir Ruparelia's grandfather was born in Uganda in 1908 and his father was born in Uganda in 1932.
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Sudhir Ruparelia attended Bat Valley Primary School in Kampala, from P1 to P6, then Jinja Main Street Primary School in Jinja for P7 and Jinja Secondary School Sudhir Ruparelia in 1971, he joined Kololo Senior Secondary School.
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Sudhir Ruparelia fled to the United Kingdom with his parents in 1972 at the age of 16, when then Ugandan president Idi Amin expelled all Asians from Uganda.
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Sudhir Ruparelia returned to Uganda in 1985, with US$25,000 earned from several casual jobs including working in supermarkets, factories, and butcheries.
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In 2007, Sudhir Ruparelia was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in business, by the Uganda Pentecostal University, in recognition of his contribution to Uganda's economic growth.
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Sudhir opened a wholesale store, in Kampala's central business district, dealing in imported beer, salt and wine In December 1986 and struck a coup when he acquired the sole rights to distribute Kenya's most premium beer brands in Uganda along with importing alcoholic beverages, Ruparelia capitalized on importing commodities like salt, sugar and cigarettes from traders at the Mombasa ports.
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Sudhir Ruparelia positioned himself as a channel between importers and retailers and became a trusted business partner to the importers, who supplied him the items on credit and claimed payments after a couple of days, to accelerate returns.
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At the time, the vast majority of Sudhir Ruparelia's customers were foreign nationals who paid for their stock in foreign currency.
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Sudhir Ruparelia started investing part of the proceeds in prime properties in Kampala.
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In 1989, President Yoweri Museveni banned the importation of beer in an effort to encourage indigenous manufacturing of alcohol but Sudhir Ruparelia was not interested in producing beer and decided to focus on his informal Forex business instead.
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Sudhir Ruparelia became Uganda's first billionaire in 2014 and was East Africa's richest person, Africa's 28th and his Crane Bank was one of Uganda's top 3 banks.
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In February 2020, Sudhir Ruparelia was appointed as honorary Consul of the Republic of Nepal to Uganda, by Bidhya Devi Bhandari, the president of Nepal.
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Sudhir Ruparelia owns the largest domestic residence in East Africa with 130,000 square metres.
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Meera Sudhir Ruparelia, the oldest, She was born on December 12,1985.
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Sudhir Ruparelia is a member on Board of Trustees of the Ruparelia Foundation and her interest is wildlife and environment conservation, a passion she shares with her father.
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Sudhir Ruparelia was born on December 23,1988, and She's married to Mr Jay Sakaria since 2016, and have two children, both girls.
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Sudhir Ruparelia is married to Mrs Naiya Khagram Ruparelia 2017 and together they have one daughter.
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Sudhir Ruparelia is a graduate of Financial Management from Regents College London.
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Sudhir Ruparelia is currently serving as the Managing Director of the Ruparelia Group.