Uganda’s richest man Sudhir Ruparelia on Saturday opened another state-of-the art building along the 5th street in Industrial Area, Kampala.
The building was opened by Rajiv Ruparelia, the Managing Director of Crane Management Services, a company under the Ruparelia Group where Sudhir is the Chairman.
Rajiv said that the building is a combination of a Ware House, Office block and Showroom, a style that is common in Dubai.
The building has enough parking yard and sits on 1600 square meters.
Rajiv decried the high cost of construction materials due to high taxes, calling for government intervention.
“In order to reduce the cost of construction in Uganda we need the support of government to help us [reduce on] import duties and high VAT we spend on construction,” Rajiv said, adding: “80% of our building materials is imported [but] there is no subsidies for the manufacturing arms who are supplying the development sector.”
He said 25% import duty on imported construction materials is quite high.
In a media interview in 2016, Sudhir revealed that he had “more than 300 titles [of land] in my closet and still counting.”
For example, he has more than 14 buildings along Kampala Road.
He valued his titles at around US$1bn (roughly Shs3.7trillion) excluding the now defunct Crane Bank.
