Mohammed Hamid (born 1976) is a Ugandan business magnate and investor. He is the owner and chairman of the executive board of directors for the Aya Group.
According to Forbes in 2015, he was the second-richest African under 40, after Tanzanian multi-millionaire Mohammed Dewji.
- Age: 43
- Industry: Investment, Transportation, Food Processing
- Net Worth: $1.2 B
Mohammed Hamd is a Ugandan business magnate ad investor. Being the third richest person in Uganda, he is the Chairman and majority shareholder in the companies of the Aya Group. Aya Group is a business conglomerate and extends its activities to Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and South Sudan. Aya employs over 5000 people, with a total asset base of over $400 million, and is involved in food processing, investments, transportation, real estate development, hospitality, and mining. Hamd was born in Sudan. His brother operated a commodity trading business called Pan Afric Impex at the time and when Hamid went to visit him he likes the country so much that he decided to stay. He worked with his brother till the early 90s’. Later he started his own company Pan Afric Commodities, also a commodities trading business. Later, he bought a milling machine from Premiere Mills, one of the companies owned by businessman Sudhir Ruparelia. Later, he started a trucking business, FIFI Transport Uganda Limited, later renamed Panafric Transport, which is a leading hauler in the East and Central African region”, with a current fleet of hundreds of heavy-duty Scania and MAN prime movers and semi-trailers
Background
Hamid was born in the Sudan circa 1976. In 1987, he traveled to Uganda for the first time to visit his elder brother, Mohammed El Hamid, who operated a commodity trading business called Pan Afric Impex. He fell in love with the country and stayed.
The younger Mohammed worked with his elder brother until the early 1990s when he started his first company, Pan Afric Commodities, also a commodities trading business. Later, he bought a milling machine from Premiere Mills, one of the companies owned by businessman Sudhir Ruparelia. In 1997, he bought a 15 acres (6.1 ha) piece of land in Kawempe, a suburb of Kampala, where he relocated the machinery and started milling wheat. Later he bought more mills and started baking bread and confectioneries.
Later, he started a trucking business, FIFI Transport Uganda Limited, later renamed Panafric Transport, which is a leading hauler in the East and Central African region”, with a current fleet of hundreds of heavy duty Scania and MAN prime movers and semi trailers
One of his companies, Aya Investments, is the developer of the Pearl of Africa Hotel, launched in 2017 by President Yoweri Museveni. In 2018, Forbes listed Hamid among the 5 young African Millionaires to watch.