By Our Reporter
Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, a Ugandan business magnate was born in Kabatoro, Kasese District in Uganda. He attended Bat Valley Primary school in Kampala and Jinja main street primary school for his primary education, before moving on to Kololo Secondary School. This means Dr.Sudhir Ruparelia is a nurtured Mukonzo of Indian decent from Western Uganda.
“No price can be put on Education”.This is the philosophy of Dr.Sudhir, a philanthropist who over the years through tenacity, vision, determination and drive to succeed, has built a successful business empire under Ruparelia group that incorporates education, insurance, horticulture, media, real estate and hotels. He is very passionate about bringing the best international Education systems and facilities into Uganda.
With the three schools (Kampala parents-KPS, Kampala International school Uganda-KISU) under Ruparelia group portfolio plus Victoria University, the ethos of attaining knowledge, having a strong career drive along with the ambition and will to succeed, is spread across the board that if he can make it in life, then all who pass through his various Education institutions can follow suit and go on to greater heights.
The soft spoken Dr. Sudhir moved to the United Kingdom with his parents in 1972 at the age of 16, when the then President Idi Amin expelled all Asians from Uganda including indigenous ones like Sudhir.
Dr. Sudhir is married to Jyotsna, since 1977. Together, they are parents to three children. Meera Ruparelia, the oldest, is married to Ravi Kotecha since 2014. Rajiv Ruparelia is their only son, and Sheena Ruparelia is the younger daughter.
In 1985, he returned to Uganda with $25,000 in savings that he earned from several casual jobs in London including working in supermarkets, factories, butcheries, special hire driver and then ventured into importing beer from Kenya, a commodity which was scarce at the time.
In 1989, Ugandan government imposed a ban on imported beer to encourage local brewing of alcohol but as a hustler, after realizing that he could not make it with that business anymore, he started Crane Forex Bureau, the first in Uganda.
With his profits, Ruparelia ventured into other businesses, including forming Crane Bank Limited (CBL) in 1995 which was recently in 2017 Fraudulently closed and sold to Dfcu Bank. By presstime, the case is in court and Dr. Sudhir has since floured Bank of Uganda twice!
He Later, he organized his businesses under the umbrella of the Ruparelia Group.
In 2007, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of law in Business by Uganda Pentecostal University in recognition of investments in several sectors that have provided employment and contributed to Uganda’s economic growth.
Under the umbrella of education, Victoria University located at Victoria Towers, 1-13 Jinja Road, in the central business district of Kampala, has grown over the years in the higher education institutions industry as it is one the few first universities accredited to teach oil and gas courses which many students have been going abroad to study, spending a lot of our foreign exchange.
The university aims to provide a dynamic environment for Learning, Innovation, Research and community engagement with commitment to play a leading role in bringing and developing high quality, student centered learning opportunities based on standards of excellence that are unique, innovative and difficult to match.
In February 2020, Dr Sudhir Ruparelia was appointed as honorary Consul of the Republic Of Nepal to Uganda, by Bidhya Devi Bhandari, the president of Nepal.
On 17 March 2020, Ambassador Sudhir presented his credentials to Hon. Minister Sam Kahamba Kutesa, Uganda’s foreign minister. Sudhir will report to the nearest substantive Nepalese embassy, in Cairo Egypt.
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