Sudhir Ruparelia (Uganda)
Chairman: Ruparelia Group of Companies
Sudhir Ruparelia, the founder and chairman of the Ruparelia Group of Companies, reportedly owns a quarter of the buildings strategically located in the Ugandan capital Kampala’s central business district.
In 1897 Ruparelia’s family arrived in Mombasa from India. He was born in 1956 in Uganda, but at the age of 16 moved to the UK with his family. However, in 1985 he decided to return to Uganda, where he started out selling salt, and later beer. After the beer business came to a standstill, Ruparelia got involved in foreign exchange. In 1995 he opened Crane Bank. “We made profits from banking and spread out to real estate, hotels, and other investments,” said Ruparelia in a recent interview.
Today the Ruparelia Group of Companies has diverse interests in banking, insurance, hospitality, conventions and leisure centres, media, education, real estate development, property management and floriculture.
Mohamed Jaffer (Kenya)
Chairman: Grain Bulk Handlers Limited (GBHL) / MJ Group of Companies
Jaffer is the chairman of the MJ Group of Companies, which has interests in dry and liquid bulk cargo handling. One of the group’s flagship companies is Grain Bulk Handlers Limited (GBHL), a grain terminal specialising in the discharge and handling of bulk grain imports at the Port of Mombasa. GBHL is one of Africa’s largest grain handlers.
Jaffer conceived the idea for GBHL more than 30 years ago, with the vision of revolutionising the handling of bulk grain and fertiliser imports at the Port of Mombasa. He began the construction of the project in 1998 after receiving $35 million funding from the World Bank.
