Who is Ahmed Omar Mandela? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, tribe, achievements, and relationship with the eSports Club Villa (SC Villa), Mandela Group City Tyres, Café Javas, Mandela Auto Spares, early life and education of the founder of the Mandela Group of Companies
Ahmed Omar Mandela commonly known as Hajji Omar Mandela is a well-known businessman, teacher and philanthropist based in Kampala, Uganda. He is one of Uganda’s richest and most powerful people.
Hajji Omar Mandela is the founder of the Mandela Group of Companies which deals in the retail, hospitality, manufacturing and automotive sectors.
Omar Mandela also heads Sports Club Villa (SC Villa), one of the top football clubs in the East African Community.
Early Life and Education
Hajji Omar Mandela was born in 1958 in Kampala, the Central region of Uganda.
He is married and has two kids.
Omar Mandela went to Makerere University and graduated with a degree majoring in economics.
Career and Professional Work Experience
Hajji Omar spent several years working as a banker after graduating.
He then established the Mandela Group in 1983. Mandela began with a hardware store and then expanded into tyre trading, car oils and fuel stations.
He then ventured into restaurants to provide food for his clients who visited the fuel stations.
He went on to start a milling company to supply raw materials for the most popular cuisines at his restaurants.
He began the business as a tiny retail store but has subsequently expanded into a sizable multinational. Kampala, Uganda serves as the home base for Mandela Group but some of the businesses are run in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda among other African nations where it operates. Over 5,000 individuals are employed by the company.
In Uganda’s economy, the Mandela Group plays a very significant role. It is among the biggest employers in the private sector in the nation. The business also makes significant tax contributions to the Ugandan government.
Omar launched Café Javas as part of the Mandela Group of Companies with the goal of improving hotel operations. The first Cafe Javas was located on Bombo Road, right adjacent to City Oil’s petrol station and service area.
The restaurant would primarily target the middle and working classes, who were willing to spend a reasonable price for a wonderful meal.
The restaurant’s popularity inspired Omar to gradually open additional branches in various sections of Kampala. The restaurant currently has nine successful outlets in Uganda, eight in Kampala and one in Entebbe.
Omar is active in various enterprises outside of the hospitality industry through the Mandela Group of Companies. He is the proprietor of Mandela Millers, a company that manufactures a variety of wheat and maize goods, including flour.
He is the owner of City Tyres, Uganda’s largest tyre manufacturing company, and City Oil, a prominent fuel and lubricants company with 8 ultra-modern filling stations in Kampala, Uganda.
He is the owner of Mandela Auto Spares, Uganda’s premier seller of new authentic spare parts for all makes and models of automobiles. Omar is also the owner of City World, a renowned distributor of First Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) obtained from globally recognised brands in Europe, Asia, and America. Savers, City Retread, City Lubes, and On The Go are among the other businesses he owns.
In November 2021, Hajji Omar was elected as the President of Sports Club Villa (SC Villa).
This was after his resignation in April 2004 as the treasurer after being re-elected for three different terms at the club since 1997.
Achievements and Awards
Omar Mandela is a prosperous businessman who has significantly boosted the economy of Uganda.
The Mandela Group owns the following businesses; City Tires, City Oil, City Retread, Café Javas (CJ’s), Mandela Millers, Mandela AutoSpares and Food Hub.
Hajji Omar also supports a number of charity initiatives.
Controversies
When Café Javas became a huge success in Uganda, Omar felt a need to expand to Kenya. However, entering the Kenyan market was not simple. They received a court injunction barring them from entering Nairobi shortly after declaring their plans to open a restaurant.
The court injunction came from Kenya’s Java House, which claimed the name would infringe on its trademark. Mandela had to rebrand from Café Javas to CJ’s Restaurant, and the restaurant opened its first location in Nairobi’s Central Business District in April 2018.
Omar Mandela was involved in a battle with the people of the Kijjabwemi Commercial District in December 2021 over 3.5 acres of land leased to his City Oil Company.
Six residents of the contentious area, plot 10 on the Masaka-Mbarara bypass, were opposed to the businessman’s plans to renovate it.
They claimed that they did not know how Mandela obtained the certificate of title to the contested land. They went on to prevent a group of construction workers from fencing off the area.
The incident attracted the attention of Masaka City Deputy Resident Commissioner Hajj Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi, who asked the opposing parties to desist from employing force to resolve the problem.
He then went on to argue that his study revealed that the problematic land was transferred to Mandela with the permission of the property’s registered owners, the old Masaka Municipal Council.
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