Hamis Kiggundu

Kiggundu was born in 1984 in the Masaka town of Masaka District in the Central Region of Uganda. Kiggundu is the son of Mr. Haruna Segawa and Mrs. Nakayiza Jalia, who is part of a family with extensive property investments in Kampala.[8][9][10]

Kiggundu was born and raised in a Muslim family. He talks about Islam as peaceful, absolute and "the highest achievement of a lifetime" and that he would not choose another religion.[11][12]

He attended his elementary education in Masaka, joined Kabojja International School in Kampala District for his high school education,[13][9][10] and later graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelors of Laws.[14]

He joined the Law Development Centre where he graduated with a diploma in legal practice.[15]

The Ham Group was established in 2005 as a small trading enterprise trading in garments. Kiggundu would help his father, a textile trader in his shop from where he absorbed the fundamentals of business and during middle school holidays his parents gave him capital to start his own venture.[10][16]He used his father’s textile background, accumulated experience and started buying garments, ladies’ bags and other textiles from large importing wholesalers and selling them locally. As his margins grew, he began to source directly from international markets and became a firsthand importer who could distribute his merchandise at wholesale in the entire East African Community member countries.[17]As his trading business thrived, he upgraded to real estates; buying and selling land and properties. In 2009 he incorporated Ham Enterprises (U) Ltd and advanced to constructing and owning his commercial edifices.[18] In 2010, Kiggundu started erection of Ham towers, his first commercial edifice at the Makerere suburb of Kampala city. According to billionaires.Africa, having mastered the commercial real estate trifles with reference to lessons learnt from his first project, Kiggundu was able to move a bit faster and within 18 months, he had erected his second property — Ham Shopping Mall.[10] With combined rental income coming from both properties, he was able to easily secure more financing with the banks, for other projects given his reasonable collateral.[2]

Today, the Ham Group is one of the largest conglomerates in Uganda, with international operations in South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Canada and The United Arab Emirates.  The Ham Group has moved from being a small garment trading enterprise to be one of the largest industrial groups in Uganda, encompassing divisions like Ham Enterprises, Ham Palm Villas, Ham Agro Processing Industries, Ham Agro Bank, Hamz Link, Kiham Enterprises, Kiggs International Ltd, Ham Suites, Ham Cinemas, Ham International Express Logistics, Ham International UK Ltd, among others.  Ham Enterprises is very loud in Kampala, with its chain of commercial properties spread around the City’s Central Business District. The company employs more than 7,000 people in Uganda.[7][16]

The Group diversified into large scale industrialization in 2021, mainly focusing on Agro-processing and value addition. According to the Forbes report on Uganda By Penresa, Hamis embarked on a US$156 million project in the central region where advanced Integrated Agro-Processing Industrial Plants (IAIP) are were setup at Akright City as a pioneer project, with a goal of providing value addition for resident and international consumption of Uganda's Agro produce.[7][19]

In 2015, President Museveni asked Kiggundu to redevelop and upgrade Nakivubo Stadium into a modern sports facility.[20][21][22]

In April 2020 Kiggundu donated food relief to Uganda's COVID-19 task force.[23] He also donated food supplies to over 100 Ugandan journalists through the Uganda Journalists Association,[24] but was also criticized for providing cash handouts to journalists.[25]

In July 2021, Kiggundu donated to the Uganda Government a total of USh 530 million to help in the purchase COVID-19 vaccine doses for Ugandans and additionally called upon other able Ugandans and corporate entities to join him in saving lives as a way of giving back to the Ugandan Community.[26][27][28]

In February 2020, Kiggundu sued Africa's Diamond Trust Bank for allegedly defrauding him for over US$30 million (USh 34.29 billion and US$23.4 million) under what he called "unclear debits" from his bank accounts over a spread period of ten years.[29]

In October 2020, Kiggundu won the case and the Ugandan High Court ordered Diamond Trust Bank to refund all the unlawfully withdrawn monies totalling to USh 34.29 billion and US$23.4 million,[30][31] with an additional 8% interest for legal costs.[32] The court additionally ordered the bank to unconditionally release/discharge all mortgages allegedly created over all Kiggundu's properties and all corporate and personal guarantees issued by Kiggundu. The court also issued a permanent injunction to prevent DTB from enforcing the mortgages over Kiggundu's properties.[29] DTB Bank later appealed the decision in the High Court and were issued an injunction halting payment of the monies.[33]

In November 2022, Kiggundu sued the Kabaka of Buganda and the Commissioner Land registration in the Ministry of Lands over cancellation of land titles of Kigo Land that sits on 140 acres.[34]

In 2018 Kiggundu was given an award as an acknowledgement for his book, Success and Failure Based on Reason and Reality. It was nominated the best book of the year in the category of "Business Motivation" at an event held by the Book Forum of Uganda in Kampala.[1]

• Success and Failure Based on Reason and Reality in 2018
• Reason as the World Masterpiece in 2021

• List of wealthiest people in Uganda
• Banking in Uganda

Meet the youngest and first African billionaire to build a national stadium using own funds

Minister Anite lauds Hamis Kiggundu for setting up modern agro-processing plant