Ruparelia Group to open 38-unit island resort on Lake Victoria
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Paradise Island Resort, a 38-unit solar-powered retreat on a 19-acre private island about 20 minutes by speedboat from Speke Resort Munyonyo, will open on 1 December after more than five years of construction.
Ruparelia Group will open its Paradise Island Resort on 1 December, more than five years after construction began on a 19-acre private island in Lake Victoria, about 20 minutes by speedboat from the group's flagship Speke Resort Munyonyo.
The retreat has 38 units built in two phases of 22 and 16: 10 standard cottages, 11 cliff-hanger cottages overlooking the lake, 14 deluxe two-bedroom cottages and three executive villas. It is being marketed 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 metres, ferrying sand and materials across the water on a purpose-built barge.
The resort runs entirely on solar power and has been designed as an eco-friendly destination, with indigenous trees left in place and a neighbouring rocky island known for its birdlife.
Construction started on 1 May 2021 and the opening has slipped several times, from November 2025 to Easter this year and then June. By November last year structural work was about 95% complete. The project is led by Sheena Ruparelia, the chairman's daughter, and the company has not disclosed what it spent on the resort.
Paradise Island joins a hospitality portfolio that includes Speke Resort Munyonyo, which hosted the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the Non-Aligned Movement summit in January 2024, as well as Kabira Country Club, Speke Hotel and other properties in and around Kampala.
Ruparelia Group is owned by Sudhir Ruparelia, Uganda's richest person with a fortune estimated at about $1.1 billion. His family left Uganda in 1972 when Idi Amin expelled the country's Asians and he returned from Britain in 1985, building the group from a trading business into a conglomerate spanning real estate, hotels, schools, floriculture, insurance and media. Property is the largest part of the group, which owns hundreds of commercial and residential buildings across Kampala.