By Frank Kamuntu
Kampala: Uganda’s richest business tycoon, the money magnet, H.E Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia will be the chief guest at the 7th Pan-African Pyramid Global Awards (PAP Global Awards) 2024 and 10th Anniversary Bonfire Dinner slated for August, 31, 2024, at Fairway Hotel.
Dr. Sudhir, the Chairman Ruparelia Group and the honorary Nepalese Consul to Uganda confirmed that he will physically attend this year’s awards ceremony as a sign of support and respect for the Pan Africanism cause that his blued eyed boy, Andrew Irumba Katusabe has been championing.
“Your event coincides with the UK summit convention where I’m also Chief Guest, but I have told Tina (his P/A) to change my flight date, so I can fly at night after attending your event,” Dr Sudhir told PAP speaker Andrew Irumba who is also the CEO of this mighty website at his Crane Chambers office on Kampala road on Tuesday afternoon.
Irumba told our reporter that the Kasese born African tycoon is among those lined up to be awarded as a Pan African whose immense contribution in developing Africa and its children is unparalleled.
“Dr.Sudhir is a practical living example of working hard from grass to grace, and should be the subject in African schools, why it should be teaching an African child about Zinjanthropus, German revolution and not how Dr.Sudhir, born from Kasese made it to the top?” Irumba wondered.
Irumba lectured in a PAP WhatsApp group while delivering the good news thus; “I am a testimony to Dr.Sudhir’s long-hand of philanthropism, and through him, I have also changed lives of others. We’ve been able to move this far as PAP because of his hand, Sherali Bandali family and Dawda family. That’s why the new Pan Africanism concept that I have been promoting is that which is colorless (black or white) but rather an ideology that sees all people of the world as one human race”.
Ruparelia was born on January 17 1956 in Kabatoro, Kasese District in the Western Region of Uganda to an upper-middle-class Indian Gujarati family.
His great-grandfather reached Mombasa, Kenya in 1897 from India and set up a trading store there before coming to Uganda in 1903. His grandfather was born in Uganda in 1908 and his father in 1932.
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.
In 1971, he joined Kololo Senior Secondary School. 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.
Ruparelia returned to Uganda in 1985, with US$25,000 earned from several casual jobs including working in supermarkets, factories, and butcheries.
Ruparelia started selling beer and spirits imported from Kenya. In 1989, beer importation was banned to encourage local brewing of alcohol and he realized he could not make beer.
But since his customers, who were mainly foreigners, paid him in foreign currency, he started Crane Forex Bureau, the first in Uganda. With his profits, Ruparelia ventured into other businesses, including forming Crane Bank in 1995. Later, he organized his businesses under the umbrella,Ruparelia Group.
In 2007, 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
As chairman and majority shareholder of the Ruparelia Group, he has become a leading figure in banking, insurance, education, broadcasting, real estate, floriculture, hotels, and resorts.
In February 2020, Ruparelia was appointed honorary consul of the Republic of Nepal to Uganda by Nepal’s President Bidhya Devi Bhandari. He presented his credentials to Uganda’s then Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa on March 17, 2020, and reports to the nearest substantive Nepalese embassy in Cairo, Egypt.
According to Forbes in 2019, Ruparelia was the wealthiest individual in Uganda, with an estimated net worth of US$1.2 billion.
Back To PAP Global Awards
The Global Pan-African Pyramid Awards (PAP Global Awards) were established in 2016 to recognize and honour Pan-Africanists who have made significant contributions in raising the African flag worldwide in various ways.
This year’s event, the seventh edition, will run under the theme ” PAN-AFRICANISM +ENVIROMENTALISM = HUMANISM,” and is expected to attract various renowned Pan-Africanists from across the continent and the Diaspora.
Many have already started booking their tickets, promising an evening of celebration and reflection on the legacy of our forefathers in the Pan African movement.
”Our senior brother Ayo Kimathi, who was here recently by the way is coming back this August, he’s among the key recipients this year. Bishop Joshua Maponga, a 2023 PAP Award recipient is also expected to come back to the Pearl of Africa,” Irumba confirmed.
Since its inception, PAP Global Awards have acknowledged and awarded notable leaders and prominent Pan-Africanists globally. Some of the distinguished awardees include Cuba’s late President Fidel Alejandro Castro, Martin Luther King Jr., Ambassador Paul Flynn (renowned African environmental philanthropist), Bishop Joshua Maponga III Marara (internationally acclaimed Pan-Africanist and Bishop of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Zimbabwean), Hon. Thomas Tayebwa (Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda), and Libya’s former President Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
Other awardees include Winnie Mandela (South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela), Dr. John Garang de Mabior (Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader), Anita Annet Among (Ugandan politician and Speaker of the 11th Parliament of Uganda), and Prof. Lekoa Solly Mollo (former South African ambassador to Uganda), among others.
