Godfrey Kirumira Kalule is a Ugandan billionaire businessman with vast interests in real estate through which he has amassed wealth reportedly worth over $30 million (approximately Ksh3.3 billion).
The Ugandan billionaire has major interest in various other sectors of the economy including fuel retailing, security, hospitality & tourism, transport & logistics, financial services, education services and commodities trading.
Kirumira is the chairman of the Landlords Association of Kampala as well as a Patron of the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA).
Here is his story as narrated by WoK.
Background
The 60-year-old grew up in Uganda during the reign of former President Idi Amin Dada, considered the darkest peroiod in the country’s history.
At the age of 12, Kirumira felt that he had more to do in this world than just go to school, so he ventured into his first business during that time.
Business Journey
He would buy and sell black-market cigarettes, sometimes, he was forced to walk in dark alleys in the night as he moved his goods.
“There were a lot of killers around in Amin’s time. They could track you. rob you kill you easily,” he told Billionaires Tomorrow during an interview in December 2020.
Kirumira would catch a train from his home to the border town of Kasese where he hid in dark alleys waiting for his shadowy customers from the other side of the border, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to show up and buy his cigarettes.
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“It could take up to a week, But it was good money. I used to spend Ush100,000 on cigarettes and got back Ush400,000; it was good money then. I did it four times. On the fourth trip they cheated me out of some of my money and I stopped going, but the money I gathered, I used to start my business,” he recalled.
Towards the end of the 1070s, Kirumira had grown confident and was smart in the way he conducted his business. In 1979, he started importing spare bicycle parts and tyres and at the dawn of the 1980s, he was importing bicycles from India and later car tyres from South Korea.
By the end of the 80s, Kirumira was an established businessman and property owner. He was also supplying maize and beans to the World Food Programme (WFP).
Businesses
The billionaire operates all his businesses under the Godfrey Kalule Kirumira (GKK) Group of Companies. Subsidiaries of the conglomerate include; Bargary Company limited that deals in fuel and operates 12 petrol stations under the name Gelp, Kirumira Towers, Muyenga Hotel (formerly known as Hotel International) and Royale Havana, Hotel Havana and Royale complex.
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Kirumira also owns Royale Cash Forex, Money Point Forex, KPI Security Company, and BTC Transporters. He is the proprietor of Premium Commodities – a company that deals in the sale of maize and beans. He is the leading importer of bales of second-hand clothes and the brains behind Nabugabo Updeal Venture Limited.
The billionaire has also invested US$ 5 million in oil. He bought a laboratory from Colombia in South America and transported it lock-stock-and-barrel to Kampala. It will assess the quality of the oil samples found in Uganda on the country’s long road to becoming an oil producer. Large deposits of oil were discovered in the Albertine Rift Valley in western Uganda back in 2006.
Schools
Kirumira has also invested in the education sector; he owns a primary and secondary school that teaches 1500 children in Kampala.
The two, St Mary’s Junior School, Nabbingo and Bright Future Secondary School Bwebajja are non-profit initiatives.
Memberships
He is the chairman of the Landlords Association of Kampala as well as a Patron of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA).
Kirumira is also the chairman of Kwagalana Group, a closed club of wealthy Ugandans that he founded in 2002. Some of the billionaire members include Gaster Lule, Sudhir Ruparelia, John Yiga, Dr Sarah Nkonge, William Kajoba among many others.
He is fondly referred to as Chairman.
The Kwagalana group – the name means brotherhood in Luganda – meets in Kampala every month where they enjoy cigars and fine whiskey. They discuss business and investments within Uganda and the region.
The group allows only 40 people and they have to be worth at least $5 million before they are even considered. They only accept a new member when one of them dies.
Kirumira founded the group 30 years ago with a handful of businesspeople and has been its chairman since the beginning.
“It started out as a way we could do things and give back to society. We build schools and churches. If the president asks us for anything we can club together easily and raise the money,” says Kirumira.
House
According to reports, Kirumira spent Ush2 billion ($500,000) to construct his mansion in the upscale neighbourhood of Buziga. The house sits on top of Buziga Hill, with a magnificent view over-looking Lake Victoria in the far distance.
