Charles Mbire has interests in practically every lucrative business sector in Uganda and beyond from telecommunications, finance, energy, oil, real estate, agribusiness
, transport and logistics among others. Now Ugandan billionaire Charles Mbire has expanded his interests into cement manufacture, an equally lucrative venture.
According to Memoranda of Association and Articles of Association seen, Mbire, best known as the chairman MTN Uganda, the biggest telecommunications company in Uganda, is a partner in Kampala Cement Company Limited. The other partner is Rajinder Singh Baryan, chairman of Nairobi-based East African industrial conglomerate, Multiple Group.
Mbire was unavailable for comment but his office, which confirmed the partnership, declined to divulge details of Mbire’s stake in the project which sources describe as significant.
The company, which owns a $100m (sh340b) cement factory at Namataba, 30 km from Kampala, that opened last year, has been in the spot light with Members of Parliament questioning the source of their raw materials.
How big is Kampala Cement?
Victor Omino, production manager, said the company produces an estimated one million metric tonnes of cement annually and offers four brands – Nyati 32.5, Kifaru 42.5, Ndovu 42.5 and Supercrete 52.5.
Uganda has three major cement manufacturers with Tororo Cement Limited producing 1.8 million metric tonnes of cement annually and Hima Cement Limited with an estimated 850,000 million metric tonnes.
Already, Kampala Cement supplies cement to some of the biggest projects in Uganda the largest among which is the Karuma hydroelectricity dam which is being constructed by Sinohydro Corporation Limited and the Kampala Northern Project Project Phase II under Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) by Mota-Engil Engenharia E Construction Africa SA.
Who is Charles Mbire?
With a reported net worth of over $350m (sh1.2 trillion), Charles Mbire is widely believed to be the richest indigenous Ugandan.
Mbire is the largest individual shareholder in MTN Uganda’s operations with a 5% worth over $70m. The company, which President Yoweri Museveni named the top tax payer in Uganda at sh458b in May this year, is estimated at over $1.5b.
Forbes estimated his net worth at $200m (sh680b) in 2012, Mbire’s Bomi Holding Company owns a 15% stake in Rift Valley Railways (RVR) worth about $84.4m (sh287b).
The publication also reports that he owns a 36% stake in power company, Aggreko, worth about $40m (sh136b) and a $60m (sh204b) stake in oil and gas exploration company Rift Energy.
He also owns Nile Com, MTN’s second largest distributor of MTN airtime; Bay port services and has sizeable stakes in Eskom Uganda, Panalpina East Africa, Ecobank Uganda, Invesco Uganda Limited and a new port set to open in Mombasa soon.
