When Dolar Popat arrived in the UK from Africa with just ten pounds in his pocket and he couldn’t have imagined that one day he’d end up sitting in the House of Lords.
On that day in 1972, years of hard labour and study lay ahead of him on his way to becoming an multi-millionaire entrepreneur.
The flight from Uganda
Lord Popat celebrated his 17th birthday in Uganda as the country entered its dark days.
The new president Idi Amin expelled the so-called Ugandan Asians in 1972 claiming they were dominating and undermining the economy at the expense of black Ugandans. The Ugandan Asians denied this, but Amin gave them 90 days to get out. The verbal attacks degenerated into violence and killings.
British refugee camps
Dolar Popat escaped the terror in Kampala by taking a plane to London, determined to rebuild his life. Arrival in London was sobering for most Ugandan Asians; even though they held British passports, they were put into spartan refugee camps, while they searched for work.
Lord Popat was determined to work his way out and get an education.
“You work in the day and you study at night until you qualify”, he says, “then you keep working hard to achieve your dream. Any refugee who does that will find Britain a very welcoming country.”
Washing dishes and flipping hamburgers
He took numerous menial jobs, including washing dishes in a restaurant, to pay for his night school courses. Eventually he became a waiter and then landed a job flipping burgers as a chef in his local Wimpy Bar – a job that fitted in with night school.
Lord Popat qualified as an accountant and that set him on a successful career as an entrepreneur supporting a range of small and middle-sized entrepreneurs. He became an expert on corporate finance and healthcare. He won a franchise deal with the Intercontinental Hotels Group and rose to prominence in the UK’s Indian community.
Eventually this brought him to the attention of the British Government which, in turn, led him to a peerage, in 2010, and a seat in the House of Lords.
A passionate advocate of entrepreneurship
Now the one time Ugandan immigrant and Wimpy Bar chef, Dolar Popat, became better known as Lord Popat of Harrow. He chose Harrow as that was the town his family settled in when they first sought refuge in 1972. Lord Popat soon made his name as a passionate advocate of entrepreneurship.
His maiden speech in the House of Lords highlighted the importance of economic growth. In 2016, he was appointed to the key position of the British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Rwanda and Uganda. In 2020 his remit was expanded to include the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Africa is a sleeping giant.”
As a strong advocate of Global Britain and boosting trading links between the UK and Africa he is a frequent traveller to these countries to foster business deals and build new enterprises.
“Africa is a sleeping giant that is now waking up. It has the talent, knowledge, creativity and resources to prosper. With 30% of the world’s minerals and 17% of the world’s population there is huge potential in Africa,” he says. Africa will shape the world.
He said that some 70% of Africans were aged under 30 years old and he predicted that with its young and vibrant population: “Africa will shape the world”. Lord Popat said he saw this with his own eyes on a recent trade mission to Uganda where he is working to support the Ugandan government in its industrialisation programme. This includes helping to finalise UK financing for a hospital and electricity and solar power Projects.
Recovery from the pandemic
“The pandemic has hit both our economies hard but the sign of recovery are on the horizon”, he says, “so the UK is investing heavily in Uganda because increased trade between the UK and Uganda will deliver more jobs, increased exports and technology transfers.”
He recognises that agriculture remains the backbone of the Ugandan economy with growth in staples like coffee, maize, sugar, wheat and barley all ripe for an export drive. To this end he’s been encouraging UK investors to help develop Uganda’s agribusiness sector to be more climate resilient and enabling Ugandan farmers to gain access to affordable finance.
A desire to build entrepreneurs
He’s a true believer in the power of enterprise and his message to delegates at the African Leadership Summit was to develop their small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to increase intra-Africa trade.
He also pointed to the importance of engaging women entrepreneurs in Africa’s economic activity. He said the majority of Africa’s farmers were female and they can play a major role of the continent’s wealth creation. It’s been more than fifty years since Lord Popat left his home in Uganda with ten pounds in his pocket. Since then that ten pounds has grown into millions .
His mission now is to share his money-making talents with millions of other emerging entrepreneurs in the UK and across Africa.
