By Aggrey Baba
Hajji Hassan Bulwadda is emerging as a businessman to watch in Kampala’s property and commercial development scene, with his proposed Nakivubo National Skilling Centre and Shopping Complex adding fresh weight to his separate UGX400 billion plan to develop City Square.
The two projects place the businessman’s ambitions on a scale that could give him a significant footprint in the capital’s future commercial landscape. At Nakivubo, he is pursuing a development that would combine practical skills training with commercial activity, while at City Square he wants to establish a major retail and hospitality complex featuring thousands of shops and a 250-room hotel.
The propert mogul’s Nakivubo proposal centres on transforming the site occupied by Nakivubo Settlement Primary School into a national skills-training centre alongside a shopping complex, with the planned facility intended to equip youths with practical skills, positioning training and enterprise as the principal features of the proposed development.
The project has moved into a new phase following an inspection by Kampala Minister Minsa Kabanda, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) officials, school administrators and local leaders. The team assessed the school premises and arrangements for relocating the pupils, after which Kabanda directed parents to prepare to transfer their children to Nakivubo Blue Primary School.
The inspection established that 82 pupils were enrolled at the school, including candidates preparing to complete Primary Seven. Officials also examined the condition of the buildings and issues concerning the future use of the site.
The proposed skills centre is designed to give the site a new purpose beyond its existing use, although its implementation remains subject to the necessary government processes and decisions.
But it is Hajj Bulwadda’s parallel City Square proposal that gives a sense of the scale of his broader investment ambitions.
He is seeking to invest an estimated UGX400bn, equivalent to about $125m, in the redevelopment of the City Square. His architectural concept features two major buildings with approximately 3,500 shops and a 250-room hotel, alongside public amenities and landscaped spaces.
The plan includes free public toilets, Wi-Fi, banking facilities, resting areas, a water fountains and green spaces where members of the public could sit and relax. Solar energy and greenery within the buildings also form part of the proposed design.
The project would further provide for a tourism exhibition facility, while young entrepreneurs would receive priority for some of the commercial spaces. If approved and implemented as proposed, it would create a substantial new retail and hospitality destination in the heart of Kampala.
The two proposals, for Hajj Hassan Bulwadda, represent different sides of the same business ambition, that developing commercial property while incorporating other functions, from skills training at Nakivubo to hospitality, tourism and public amenities at City Square.
The Nakivubo process has now reached the practical question of relocating pupils and determining the future use of the site, while City Square remains under government evaluation. The outcomes will determine how much of Hajj Bulwadda’s proposed investment programme moves from concept to implementation.
Even at this stage, the projects have placed his name prominently in discussions about Kampala’s redevelopment opportunities. With one proposal focused on skills development and commercial activity and the other carrying a projected investment of UGX400 billion, the young billionaire is positioning himself for a larger role in the city’s property and business landscape. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
