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Ashish Thakkar — Konnect Africa

Ashish Thakkar

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The 36-year-old Ugandan entrepreneur is the founder of Mara Group, a Pan-African conglomerate that has an interest in IT, banking, real estate, manufacturing and agriculture.

Born in the United Kingdom, Thakkar moved to East Africa as a teenager before founding Mara Group at the age of 15. The company has more than 8,000 employees and is present in around 22 African countries.

The company’s annual turnover is more than $100 million. Thakkar said he was moved to start his business after his family lost their properties in the Rwandan genocide, which led them to flee to Burundi and later Uganda.

From selling computer parts after dropping out of school at the age of 15, the former refugee’s net worth is around $425 million as of January 2017, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.