Ugandan billionaire Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia is officially opening the Paradise Island Resort on December 1, 2026 as a gift to his beloved country , the people of Uganda and the rest of the world .
The opening comes at a time when Uganda is positioning itself to diversify its tourism products beyond its globally renowned mountain gorillas, national parks and wildlife safaris. Tourism remains one of the country’s leading foreign exchange earners, contributing significantly to employment, investment and economic growth.
The splendid resort is located on a private 19-acre island on Lake Victoria, roughly a 20-minute speedboat ride from Speke Resort Munyonyo.
It boasts of immaculate rooms designed for couples, families, and corporate groups to host weddings, conferences, retreats, and private events.
Dr.Sudhir Ruparelia , continues to invest in the development of Uganda
The project is led by Sudhir’s daughter, Sheena Ruparelia, expanding the Ruparelia Group’s hospitality portfolio (which includes Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kabira Country Club, and Speke Hotel.
The new venture has taken five years in construction and runs entirely on solar power and has been designed as an eco-friendly destination, with indigenous trees left in place and a neighboring rocky island known for its birdlife.
Paradise Island has 38 units, built in two phases of 22 and 16. They include 10 standard cottages, 11 cliff-hanger cottages overlooking the lake, 14 deluxe two-bedroom cottages and three executive villas. The group is marketing the resort to couples and families as well as companies, with space for conferences, corporate retreats, weddings and private events. Workers have also built a man-made beach of about 500 meters, using a purpose-built barge to ferry sand and materials across the water.
Construction started on May 1, 2021, and the opening has slipped several times. The group had aimed to open the resort in November 2025, then around Easter this year, and later in June. By November last year, structural work was about 95% complete.
Paradise Island joins a hospitality portfolio that already includes Speke Resort Munyonyo, which has hosted major international meetings including the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the Non-Aligned Movement summit in January 2024. The group also owns Kabira Country Club, Speke Hotel and other properties in and around Kampala.
Ruparelia, whose family left Uganda when Idi Amin expelled the country’s Asians in 1972, returned from Britain in 1985 and built the Ruparelia Group from a trading business into one of Uganda’s largest conglomerates. It spans real estate, hotels, schools, floriculture, insurance and media. Property is the biggest part of the group, which owns hundreds of commercial and residential buildings across Kampala.
He is Uganda’s richest person, with a fortune estimated at about $1.1 billion.
