Who is Drake Lubega? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, tribe, achievements, and relationship with Nalongo Grace Nakitto, Benita, Jalia Lubega Nagawa, Bonita, Charles, Isaac Matovu Lubega, Elizabeth Jane Alividza, Mark Lubega, the early life and education of the owner of Jesco Industries Limited.
Drake Lubega also known as Drake Francis Lubega is one of the wealthiest businessmen in Uganda according to a 2012 published report.
Lubega is the owner of Jesco Industries Limited, a company commonly known for manufacturing plastic bags in Uganda.
He is also a property mogul in Uganda.
Early Life and Education
Drake Lubega is from Bunyiri Kyampisi sub-county in Mukono district, Uganda.
Relationships and Family
Drake’s first wife via traditional marriage is Nalongo Grace Nakitto, with whom he has seven children.
Drake began dating Benita after his divorce from Nakitto in 1997 and married her in 2000. Drake and Benita Lubega married on December 23, 2000, at Namirembe Cathedral.
Drake divorced Benita in 2013, and he married a new wife, Jalia Lubega Nagawa in a Kiganda traditional ceremony. Drake and Benita have four children; Bonita, Charles, Isaac Matovu Lubega and Mark Lubega.
Jalia Nagawa also later divorced Lubega in December 2020.
Career and Professional Work Experience
Drake Lubega is the owner of the investment vehicle called Jesco Industries Limited (JIL) which was formed on October 7, 2005. He is the majority shareholder of JIL.
JIL owns and controls buildings and parcels of land in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala and in areas outside that city.
He has two Qualicell Buildings and three Jesco Buildings. His Jesco vaseline and Jesco beauty cream inspired the name Jesco.
Qualicell is from the Qualicell dry cells, for which he was the sole distributor in the country for a long time.
Lubega owns more than thirty buildings in Kampala that are primarily rented to business owners and almost everyone who works in the city.
Some of these include; Majestic Plaza on William Street, Qualicel Building, Vienna House on Ben Kiwanuka Street, Jesco Building in Nakivubo, SB Plaza and the land where the Qualicel Bus terminal was constructed.
Drake Lubega, in addition to buildings, has plants in Ntebetebe and Bweyogerere, as well as several warehouses and immense acres of land.
He is also the owner of Elite School in Bwebajja.
In the 2021 General elections, Lubega contested as a Democratic Party candidate for Constituency Representative (MP) of Kakuuto, He however garnered 550 votes and lost the election to Lutaaya Geofrey of National Unity Platform.
Achievements and Awards
Drake Lubega is one of Uganda’s largest property owners, not just in Kampala, but throughout the country.
Drake Lubega owns some of the following properties; Majestic Plaza, Jesco Plaza (located at formerly DV8), Astoria Plaza next to former Barclays Luwum Street, Titanic Building at Johnson Street, Energy Centre, Jesco near Ham grounds, Eco Plaza, Totale City Plaza, Qualicell Bus Terminal, Jamboli, Pentagon, Atalanta, Mini Price (which he bought from John Sebalamu), ESCO Plastics (Katonga), City Complex in Kiyembe, Qualicell on William street, Jesco in Nabugabo among others.
Lubega has collected a fortune and is valued at over UGx 1 Trillion throughout the years, and his empire is continually expanding, as is his net worth.
Controversies
On September 25, 2019, the High Court’s Standards and Utilities Division convicted Drake Francis Lubega of producing non-standard plastic bags known as Kaveera.
Lubega was found guilty on two charges of creating substandard products that do not match Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) requirements, as well as making an inflated claim on a product by counterfeiting the UNBS logo.
Before Grade 1 Magistrate Her Worship Marion Mangeni, he pleaded guilty to the charges. As a result, he was convicted and ordered to pay Shs60 million.
Jalia Lubega Nagawa filed for divorce in December 2020, regarding Lubega for violent conduct that resulted in many miscarriages, denial of conjugal rights, slavery, abandonment, and economic servitude.
Nagawa asked the court to separate them and split the properties they had worked together to acquire in a divorce petition prepared by Lufunya Associated Advocates.
Nagawa testified in court that she introduced Lubega to her parents in Nazigo, Kayunga district, in 1984, before they married on August 1, 1989, in Banda, Nakawa division, Kampala, under the Kiganda customary marriage.
The Court of Appeal ordered Drake Lubega to pay up to Sh300 million to the tenants whose businesses he illegally liquidated in March 2023.
The High Court judge, Elizabeth Jane Alividza, ruled Drake Lubega guilty of inflicting financial losses on the tenants after closing their businesses and selling their products in a unanimous verdict in court.
In November 2008, Lubega blamed business rivalry for claims that a girl was buried alive in his building. He however said he was a Christian and a parent and there was no way he could associate with child sacrifice.
After being married to Drake for 11 years, Benita filed for divorce in the High Court in May 2012, citing what she called “constant harassment.”
In June 2012, she filed a new case in the High Court (Civil Division) seeking to secure her minority stake in Jesco Industries Ltd, a firm that manages the majority of Lubega’s properties.
Benita allegedly asked the court to give her nine of the buildings as well as a chain of additional properties.
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