He shot to fame a couple of years ago when it emerged he was the owner of the then brand new Ham Towers in the neighbourhood of Makerere University. He then found a new level of prominence when, aged only 30, he publicly showed himself to be one of the local businessmen with President Museveni’s utmost confidence– as the president granted him the rights to redevelop Nakivubo Stadium into a state-of-the-art sports complex. And last year he cemented his place among the country’s celebrity business moguls, as he unveiled what has since been rated as the most expensive home in the country –a scenic palatial residence on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kawuku, Bbunga, valued at more than $5 million.
Turn to May 2016, and Ham Kiggundu gets you recalling the old English saying ‘The higher one rises, the harder one falls.’ Reports that the young tycoon is in hot soup because of bank loans he is failing to pay up, and that to raise money to ease the yoke around his neck Ham has set about selling off some of his prime property –starting with the majestic residence in Bbunga. The amount Ham owes his debtors has been almost unanimously stated as $60 million (Shs210 billion), while the different sources claiming to know the exact amount he is asking for his mansion have given figures between $ 4 to 6 million (Shs14 to 21 billion).
Indebted but not sinking
The media-shy Ham was not available for comment, however, a close confidant that Matooke Republic spoke to said claims the young tycoon was so heavily being indebted and sinking to the level of selling his mansion were “blatant falsehoods”.
“Ham is indeed indebted,” the source who has been close to Ham’s family for nearly three decades told us, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
“He owes a lot of money to the Islamic Development Bank, and he also owes several other banks based in Islamic nations. But I can bet my right hand that Ham is [servicing] his loans and has no trouble with any debtor. I know he pays back $100,000 (Shs350m) on one of the bigger loans per month, and he has never defaulted on that loan for the last one year.”
“The entire Ssegawa family is indebted, primarily to the Islamic Development Bank,” another source we spoke to intimated.
“But they are paying back their loans well and there’s nothing they have put up for sale, or I would know because I would be among the people foremost in the hunt for buyers,” the confidant told us.
Always borrowed to invest
To put Ham’s debts into perspective, our source said one had to consider the fact that the young tycoon and the entire Ssegawa family have always borrowed to invest—and that borrowing was the foundation of the Ssegawas’ leap into the country’s top money bracket.
“Borrowing started when Ham’s parents, Hajji Haruna and Hajjati Hadijjah, decided to introduce their children to business,” the source said. “The parents handed the four children who were already of age some properties to individually manage.”
Ham, who is the second born out of six and had just graduated with a Law degree from Makerere University, quickly showed himself to be the most astute.
“He started mortgaging the property he had been handed for loans from a local bank, which loans he would invest and then pay back while growing new business ventures.”
Ham began by investing in small buildings and plots in Kampala’s central business district, which he then sold off at a profit. In those early days he also invested in small supermarkets around town before he ventured into the import business, starting off with importing clothes from Dubai and China, and later diversifying into furniture and building materials.
“Soon he had networked and established connections with banks based in Islamic countries where he was able to get bigger loans, and his family members also picked up on his trick of borrowing to invest.
“For example, the parents borrowed money to start the Cash-cash petroleum jelly venture, and they also borrowed to grow their Hana Mixed School.”