At 30, Rajiv Ruparelia is certainly the youngest MD overseeing over 28 companies spanning Real Estate, Forex Exchange, hospitality, Charity, Education services, Insurance, Media, Labour externalization among others.
Some of the famous strings of firms which Rajiv presides over include; Commonwealth Resort Munyunyo, Speke Apartments, Gold Star Insurance, Premier Recruitment, Rosebud Limited, Kampa Parents School, Victoria University, Ruparelia Foundation and many more.
Managing such an empire at early age, Rajiv says he has been driven by passion to transform Uganda into an economically stable country, a reason he ditched a great job opportunity in the UK after studies and returned to Uganda to make a difference. Appearing at a top city radio station Sanyu FM last Rajiv said:
“I am a Ugandan; I am a third generational Ugandan. I left a job opportunity in England to come and work in Uganda, a great job opportunity for that matter, my heart bleeds for Uganda.”
Rajiv is the son of Ugandan billionaire Sudhir Ruparelia, who in his 60s has entrusted the multi billion empire to the young man who has exuded an exceptional ability to draw a line between managing, developing a family business and driving his own passion/hobbies.
Rajiv, mid last year joined what he calls his favorite sport- motor- rallying in which he displayed a phenomenal performance and has since qualified for the country’s top league in a such a short time.
Whereas, Rajiv has the money which anyone would want to influence the processes of qualification, his promotion has been on merit, leaving a remarkable notion that with or without money anyone can do it.
“We need to stop looking at people and say he has money he can do this no! come with your innovation.
People don’t realize that money is secondary to the passion of having something will never go past the boundary wall of money, they are always stuck there in life. That I can do something because I don’t have money.
Look at the billionaires of the world. How many actually came out of a good middle class family and how many actually came out from down at the bottom?
Because the people who came from down the bottom of society are creative in ways of doing things in society. They always had a no! They never listened to those people.
Most people didn’t come from decent families, they really came from the bottom and wanted to make a different to the world. And the passion to make a difference is what drove them to be financially wealthy.”
However, as much as he loves the sport, he knows when do what and at what particular time, because if he concentrates on rallying, he would end up losing business which is the main source his livelihood.
“I know what is funding what, and I will never let rally become my priority because as soon as I do, I will let go of my business and my business funds my hobbies so as much as I love rally, my business is my priority.”
Rajiv subscribes to establishing systems if anyone wants to succeed in his endeavors, because at the end of the day time is money- so an old adage goes.
“It is not the time I am putting but the systems and people I am putting to manage me and them meeting my expectations.
For example, we have a team manager Daniel Kawu, chief technical officer that is Mike Mwangi, there are other full time mechanics on the team, have a PR person so the team is now structuring itself.
So spending $5000 or shs 20 million on my team is still cheaper than I spending 10 days on the rally team. Because 10 days in a month, if I spent them on my business, I can make way more than that.”
To many Ugandans, may be Rajiv entered the motorsport for showbiz, but to him he is driven by the passion of making a change and his country better.
He wonders whether other nationals topping Africa are made of steel or hail from a different planet.
“So for me I keep seeing Kenya winning, South Africa winning, I ask myself why can’t Uganda win?”
But this young businessman is determined to raise Uganda’s flag higher.
“There is no reason why next year we can’t. This year is about learning and learning but next year we going for ARC
I have been speaking to my dad about it. That if we are going for Africa Rally Championship we going knowing we are winning. There is no point going into something knowing you won’t win.
So we are going to hold that Ugandan flag high, rise it up and we will try and make Uganda proud when we represent it at ARC.”
Rajiv planning to enter his rally car
Rajiv would dedicate the win to his wife Naiya Ruparelia who feels threatened by his appearance in that racing machine.
“Every time I get into the car she says goodbye.”
There have been one or two incidents in which rally drivers have perished in the game due to some mistakes.
But to Rajiv, nothing can stop him while behind wheels, a reason he coined a name for his rally car and rally team, “Double Trouble” which makes it easier for his fans to speak, shout and scream whenever he is on the road.
“We wanted to create some trouble in the game. So we thought about what names would Ugandans love to shout. They love to shout and scream on the rally. So everything of the name had to be what could you scream and shout on the rally. And when the locals and the villagers are shouting Double Trouble, just the rhythm of it sounds good.
So everything was about what can the fans remember, what will stick in their mind, how can we become a household brand? So next time we go, they won’t remember those complicated names but they will remember Double Trouble.”
Rajiv, is versatile young man! With 28 companies at hand, he believes a successful businessman should think ahead.
He has already added another 29th company on the already existing empire.
Premier Hemp, a company that will fast-track the growth and production of medical marijuana.
This business, will renew Uganda’s economic stability and transform the country into a middle income status, no doubt.
What the government needs to do is to accelerate the legislation of cannabis (marijuana) production.
Rajiv believes this is the time for Uganda to shine.
“It will bring in foreign currency, the global cannabis phenomena is taking off. Uganda has one of the best environments, it has cheap labour force, availability of land. So there is no reason why we shouldn’t be doing this.”
He appeals to cabinet to pass the legislation as fast as it can because this new industry will mitigate the ‘cancer of unemployment.’
“Like I said we need to be forward thinking not following every other nation. So I am very proud of our cabinet, I am very proud of our MPs because they have taken this initiative to drive it faster than our neighbors and this is going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Uganda.”
Picture of raw marijuana
Through Premier Hemp, Rajiv has already exhibited interest by applying for license.
“If cabinet can sit down and pass this bill because it is going to be a game changer for Uganda, it will inspire new industries to evolve and the speed at which they have driven this is phenomenal.”
The State Minister for Health Robinnaj Nabanja had earlier cabinet would discuss and decide on the matter on Monday to allow investors inject in this business.
Premier Hemp as part of Rupelia group of Companies plans to leverage its vast agriculture expertise- they own Rosebud Limited and Premier Roses who together control about 40% of Uganda’s flower export business, to grow Medical Marijuana on a commercial scale.
The company is one of over 20 companies that have applied for a production license that is pending cabinet clearance of policy guidelines on the production and processing for export of medical marijuana.
Rajiv couldn’t hide his smile on the performance of Kampala Parents School 2019 PLE candidates.
15 pupils scored aggregate 4, 172 passed in first grade while 54 were in second division.
The 2019 candidates performed better than 2018.
Rajiv said they designed a new strategy for that.
“So what we had, were a lot of people blaming each other that the children were coming up to the right standards and were not taught previously well.
So one of the strategies we pulled out was let the same teacher teach the children in p.6 and p.7 so that teacher has no excuse but to be held accountable for the child he has been teaching over the last two years.
And we have done a lot of small things that have helped Kampala Parents and we managed to get new young teacher. You see teaching is considered an evolution because you are learning everyday. Now in a school the way we were taught 15 years ago isn’t the way my kids will be taught when we go to the university.
What they learn and the relevant of what we were taught have got to change because the world is constantly evolving, its changing.
So we brought in young new teachers who have new teaching methods, who are attached to the children, not who are there to teach or tell a child what to do but they have got a personal emotional attachment with each other (teacher and child).”
