 Either Africa is in your blood or it is not in your blood. And if it is in your blood, you can't keep away from it. And Africa is in my blood and my family's blood. They are Ugandans for all intents and purposes. They are Ugandan Indians called them. But I think their first love is Uganda. So there was this misconception, I think, that all the Indians came here as laborers. Alidina Visram was the first one to come here. Slowly you saw the migration of the Indian traders, looking at the opportunities, primarily, of course, being Dukawalas. It was a fantastic challenge, I'm sure, for them, which was a very wild town at the time. And they decided that, you know, this was the post where they would start some trade and so on. I know Uganda was a very, very likable country, a very prospering country. Most of the business was in the hands of Indians. My grandfather stated that some of the visions was to look at the agricultural sector at that time. So you had people like Nanji Khalid Asmeta in Lugazi. And even in his book, he states this, that this opportunity came in the 1930s, which they took upon themselves to develop. You had this beauty of agricultural activities. The prime area of interest would be in the cotton-gaining business. So oil milling became one, creating byproducts. Trading in the interim went on. We had, I think, community of over 80,000 Asians. Not only Gujaratis, of course, hotels, Goans, Pajabis, Sikhs. You know, all the Indian ethnics that you could think were settled here. The Indians brought in to play education by creating their own schools, not only in the major cities, but even in small towns. The position for the Indians was that they were respected very widely because you had a lot of innovations here. You had obviously this beauty of agricultural activities which fully was explored by the Gujaratis and others. Many of those people have become leaders over the years, politicians, leaders of industry, and then entrepreneurs and so on. From the figures that you have heard about Uganda's economy at that time, the flourishing of the Ugandan economy in context of East Africa, it was a leader. The history of Uganda's, the communities, the societies were organized here, they respected it. So even the Asians who first came here in 1900s, when they reached here like the Madhuvan, they really became Ugandans. The Gomez, the Goan Asian from India who made the first Gomez, which is now one of the major female traditional dresses. In this country, there was three levels of society on top were the Europeans, in the middle were the Indians, and at the bottom were the Ugandan Africans. From the time I was a little child, I knew I had little Indian friends. I was born in Uganda in 1956. Our families left India in 1897 and they came to Uganda in around 1903. I was born in Kenya, third generation, my grandfather came to Kenya. I'm told just before the Second World War, my father joined him at a very young age. I was born in Kenya and India is home. Our friends were Ugandans and Indians. We all used to study together. We all used to play together. Kampala occupied seven hills. It was a beautiful, lovely country, very peaceful. As the independence came, some Asians got jittery and they started to migrate because they were not sure what an African government would do to them. Up till the 1970s, where Uganda was home for everyone, your sense of belonging was here. All the Indian ethnics were settled here. There was a sense of conflict of interest driven through saying that we need to now create the opportunity for the common man to flourish. In 1971, Amin had called the conference of all the Indians from all over Uganda and he raised many questions about discrimination by Indians to Ugandans. What happened in 1972 was entirely Amin and Amin was advised to get rid of the Asians. Amin was brutal. He was unkind. He dreamt and he wanted Asians to live in Uganda and that's when we realized that we are different people. Although we were born and brought up in Uganda, they said anybody who has got their documents ready has to live and that was a shock. This chaos took place. People had to run. Many families were split. Some were made stateless. I very much remember living. I was already sitting in a taxi and I saw one of my photographs. So I got out of the car, I went to pick it up and I carried my photograph to London with me. And the biggest worry was coming from Kamuli to Kampala. There were a lot of army checkpoints and we were worried whether we'd be able to make it to Kampala. One of my brother was in Kampala waiting for us to arrive and when he counted five heads, he was very happy that he could go and buy the tickets. I wasn't sure that all five of us would arrive. People were in industry, in trading, in all these aspects. Never thought this day would ever come. And here was a reality where you're faced now with all this hostile environment where you were nobody. And it became very difficult for people to regain ground. Asians who were brave stayed as a few came back early. I love Uganda, I love Uganda. I'm born in Uganda and I had conviction. Time will come, we'll go. We have to stay here. There were about 200 Uganda passport dollars. We used to meet in the temple every evening. I was scared but we had to be careful When I used to meet my old friends and they say, you are brave, it's good that you didn't leave. Congratulate you, Africans were telling us. The Ugandans, they thought that they were poor because the Indian was rich. So I mean, took a walk along Kampala Road with his friends in tow and said, this is your shop, this is your pharmacy. That's how he gave away the Asian property. So what happened? They went, found the goods that the Asians were not able to sell or take with them. By the way, they took very little and they sold those goods, then what? That was the end of business. And then Uganda started going down. The uneducated Ugandans did prosper very much but also you have to remember that when you put it on a balance, many people lost their lives. Many people fled into exile. I mean, this time was horrible. Uganda was making news not for good things, for bad things, who has died. People were disappearing from universities, from homes. I mean, you could call it honeymoon. Didn't last for more than two years. And by that time, Uganda realized that they had made one of the greatest mistakes of a lifetime. There was this great anxiety now that we cannot now have en masse immigrants coming in a totally, I would say, hostile environment. Hostile in the way because of the climate, lack of knowledge of the British culture, lack of communications with the British, and poor. They left all their wealth. I arrived at UK airport. My sister and brother were there to pick us up. So that was the biggest blessing. The next morning, my sister-in-law takes me to the shops. She bought me a uniform. Then she took me to a supermarket. So she said she's asking for a job for me. So I said, job for me? I was shocked. It did not down on us that we're actually gonna suffer. I had to make a living on my own. I looked for many jobs and did many jobs to survive. I worked in a supermarket. I worked in a butchery, in the bakeries. I also was driving a taxi in London. So at night, I did a weekend job and I go to school in the weekdays. When I looked back at it, only the rich people would have gone abroad to study. But this way, everyone got an opportunity to go abroad. They studied and they brought the knowledge back. Come 1979, I mean was overthrown. I worked. And I said to myself, where do we begin? Everything was broken, shot, it was absolute chaos. So one of the things we did was to invite the Asians, those who can, to come back. So we could not be a pro-people government and we don't protect other people whose properties we are storing. That was the first one. The second one, we knew that those Asians who accepted to come, they would come with a wealth of experience with the business acumen, but also with money to invest here. So we wanted them to come and revamp the economy and they did. We had a very cushy life in London. We were buying properties, we had our own business. And there, so there comes one evening to me and says, look, I really want to go back to Uganda. I was a little shocked, but I said, all right, let's try our luck. I came back in 1985. The country was at war within the town, thinking how we can fit in with the community here. There was nothing. There were no shops, no supermarket. We started with a retail outlet of shop where we were trained and sold. In 1990, the government was going to formalize the foreign exchange transactions. We opened the first foreign exchange bureau in the country. For us, we had no alternative but to do the reverse and move into banking business in order to survive our foreign exchange business. It was when Sudhir Sir started the business, it was a very strict rule. It was just run by two of us and there were two Ugandan people. When, of course, the group started growing, I said to myself, this is enough now. I started taking it easy. And Sudhir was very brave when he believed in the President Mussavini. And what he wanted was make sure that whatever he was making, he wanted to invest back and make sure that the people of Uganda were able to enjoy it. We started current banking in 1995, Gold Star in 1996. We started a hotel. We built a hotel business to such an extent that in 1996, the government of Uganda asked us to help them build a hotel where we can accommodate head of state. And the one roof is quite an adventure, actually. The Indians have definitely contributed to the growth of Uganda. They are definitely important because they have been in this business for a long time. And they are teaching other Ugandans. Even today, we've been opening a factory, find spinners, where Ugandan cotton for the first time is being added value. They are contributing a great deal to the growth of Uganda. 70% of Africa's population is under the age of 30. And 70% of under the age of 30 is also unemployed. And it's going to grow so rapidly. And we're going to have over a billion people by 2020 or working age. And imagine a lot of them unemployed. So you can imagine what's going to happen. It's not only going to be social unrest in Africa. If we don't manage this talent, because to me it's great talent, it's going to be social unrest for the rest of the world. Every challenge is an opportunity to me. I don't look at a challenge as a challenge. I actually say, where is the opportunity in this challenge? To me, the only industry that can create jobs is the textile industry. From field to fashion, this is going to create jobs. Some is skilled and for our farmers, it will be just an amazing thing. It won't only change livelihoods of the people that will be working at the factory, it will change livelihoods of the families that will be growing the cotton. The difference with this factor is that the cotton is grown here. It's milled here, it's dyed here, it's knitted here, it's turned into thread until the upper air production. It's very exciting. It's a journey that I'm going to enjoy. So we decided that we will invest into a textile mill. After that, I said, no, I've got to do it bigger and better. And yes, we went into spinning. And I took that view that either you export or you perish. I was the first one to start exploring our Kenya. Today, we supply to nine African countries in Eastern Central Africa. And that was that turning point. The Ugandan government has given us the tools, the President endorsed those tools. He said, yes, we will give you the right cost of energy and the rest we will give you security of raw material. And really, that's really what we're doing here. When you export lint cotton, you get one dollar for a kilogram of cotton. When that same kilogram is processed into garments, you get 15 dollars for the same kilogram for which you would get one dollar. So you can see the perpetual hemorrhage of Africa. The honorable first letter to myself, I'm very happy to be here on this occasion to witness the actualization of our vision, liberating Uganda from the slavery of producing and exporting raw materials. And that is the key symbolic of this inauguration. Mr. Betty receiving that. People won't change and they won't change because they want social security. And how do you get social security if you don't have jobs? So fundamentally, that's the mantra. And that's what I want to do. And I can only do it with an industry that's labor intensive. And yes, we have a pan-African vision. And yes, in 2025, we'll be in seven African countries. And yes, we want to create jobs. When you do a good job in life, you actually see a difference and how it impacts so many other people. And I think that's what motivates us every day. Whenever we want to do something, we want to bring international standards to Uganda. I would say the biggest challenges so far are the lack of skilled workers. You start realizing what's important and what's not important. We required a school which offers Ugandan curriculum so I can support the Ugandan community educating more than 3,000 children. I did not have as much opportunity of doing it. So now I can afford to make sure that people have an opportunity. Sudeel, I could say, is a case from rags to riches. He can inspire you. The Forbes Sudeel, I've known him, but I've also known Sudeel when he was just beginning. His riches have a trick or down effect up to the last grass-loot person. His contribution to Uganda is immense because he is providing employment for thousands of Ugandans. When you have a population growth of 1 million people every year, people need to look at food security. In general, he had his vision of looking at a very long-term view of how to create food security. By doing that, he would be supporting the masses. He wants the masses to be known in agriculture. Then not only agriculture, but with value added. It's the second phase. It may be the final phase of our evolution. I know how to modernize the masses towards an objective and he knows how to commercialize that. It's a serious connection. He's an engineer. He's a financial engineer. He has the means to transfer technology and then fight for markets. I said, I'm going to aim for the ground. You aim for the throne, but we shall meet. If you build 200 centers like this, you will create 1.2 million jobs. We need him at that financing level, taking over the next phase. We've told governments that if you want to address joblessness, because fundamentally, it's joblessness. Joblessness breeds hopelessness. Hopelessness breeds uselessness. And we want to turn all that into a positive thing. I just talk to everyone I meet. I go to the African Union in Addis. I've addressed publicly many presidents and I've told them, if I was the CEO of your country, there are only three things I would do. Number one, jobs. Number two, jobs. Number three, jobs. The taxes they are paying, which taxes are building roads, hospitals, schools, they are contributing a great deal. The more you build a middle class, the more protection you have for your investments. You can't be here and own everything and have the other people so poor under you. Finally, they push you against the wall and it's like sitting on a small time bomb. The Madvanese want to establish a sugar plantation in my district of Amoro. They have not been allowed to establish their plantation because my people say, oh, the Madvanese will take away our land. Now, the Madvanese have been in ginger for over 100 years. Not one square inch has been taken to India. On the other hand, they have provided employment, they have provided social services, schools, hospitals. Yes, I was scared because I thought, what if this happens to us again? What if we have to leave the country again? Then I just sat down and said, like, this is it, support Sudhir and grow here. Sudhir has decided that this is his country. If suddenly Asians were supposed to expel again, everything that Sudhir has built would remain here. I would imagine that three quarters of his wealth is in bricks and mortars. And that is a commitment which nobody, nobody in Uganda, not even Ugandan, proportionally, have done. What is the Ugandan? Is it color? No. What is being a Ugandan is having a passion about your country, being patriotic, contributing to a country politically, economically, socially. And I think they've been in all that, including spiritually. We were always taught that there's no difference between what the color of your skin states. Inevitably, we all have a heart. We all have blood. We all are human at the end of the day. Well, I think culture starts from home. I think it's what your parents embrace into you. It's so nice to see the way Indians are doing it all over the world. We want to make sure that the children know their roots. We visit India to make sure that we know the roots. We mix up with all the Indians, but we have more Ugandan friends. What happened with most East African Asians is that culturally and of a heritage we've maintained, I would call us more Indian than Indians. In terms of religious affiliation in our poor jars and what have you, India has moved on as compared to our cultural values. My heart, my mind, everything was always in Uganda. I really feel for the people here. I've also seen a lot of poverty that has been eradicated slowly through the country, and I want to play my part in helping people to kind of get through that stage and make them sustainable. I am third generation in this country. My son is a fourth generation and they said we're home. I have always wondered how a small community are the moving stars of Uganda to the kind of praise that the Honorable President of Uganda showered on people like you and on the contributions that are making to this country.