By Ian Ortega
At just 23 years old, Tonny Rutakirwa has achieved what 98% in Uganda will never achieve or even dream of achieving. The mentor to BigEye.ug co-founder, Ian Ortega is a true force to reckon, as an avid networker, artful entrepreneur and amazing author. But beyond just that, he has just made a record, a silent one yet a very big one in this era of social media.
Tonny Rutakirwa is now the most followed Ugandan on Twitter as of May 2014. Perhaps he is only challenged by Ashish J. Thakkar, the founder of Mara Group. But even then, more Ugandans follow Rutakirwa than they do follow Thakkar, which means that he is the most popular Ugandan on Twitter among Ugandans on Twitter.
With 70.6k followers, Tonny Rutakirwa leads notable personalities like Charles Onyango Obbo and Andrew Mwenda. If we are to ask for the god of Twitter in Uganda, then this award would go to Rutakirwa. He surely knows more about Social Media than the creators of Social Media themselves, at least when it comes to marketing. He is ranked 23,099 in the whole world, which means that he is among the most popular 20 thousand people in the world of over a billion people.
Born on 25th March 1990, Tonny Rutakirwa, a Ugandan by Nationality, grew up in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. He went through Salvation Army Nursery school, Lohana Academy for his Primary Education, Namirembe Hillside High School for his O’ level and completed his A’ level at London College of St Lawrence.
He later flew to Malaysia to further his studies at Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation (UCTI – APIIT) in Technology Park Malaysia.
He has been doing business since he was a little boy. It was in his primary school (age of 10) when he made his first million. In his O’ level, he continued trading at school to get upkeep money thus accentuating the already enough his parents gave him. He loved (and still does) living a luxurious lifestyle thus he had to ensure he had money on him all the time.
In his A’ levels, Tonny and a few other students started up four companies which they visualized to be the greatest in the world. These included;
i. MYLES Cleaning Company with acronym, “Make Your Living Extra Simple” which was meant to deliver all round cleaning services.
ii. YES Wear whose letters stand for, “Your Extra Satisfaction” which was meant to deliver all round fashion service and products.
iii. Traveline, Inc. which was meant to deliver all round transportation services.
iv. Blue Walkers which was meant to transform Uganda’s music industry and make it the most desirable on the planet.
His failures in these companies are what he shares in this book so you may not take the same route in pursuit for your dreams.
He later joined QuestNet (QNET) and did professional sales, marketing and net-working. This company gave him exclusive sales experience that has helped him sustain his current companies. He also joined New Image International (in Malaysia and New Zealand) that cemented his sales, marketing and branding skills.
Tonniez Engineering Prospects is another of his aspiring companies dealing in all round engineering especially with laptops and computers since he started manufacturing laptops in 2011 in China with its current brand being the Tonniez Ultimate Slim which is a beautiful product of creativity that can be viewed of YouTube. TEP plans to get into the smart phone industry.
He is also part of the secretariat of the Uganda Youth Mentoring Program (UYMP) soon to be rebranded to Young Achievers Mentoring Program following a partnership with Young Achiever’s Awards.
He has been recognised in the prestigious Young Achiever’s Awards in the corporate and professionals category in 2010. These awards were presided over by the President of the Republic of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who was the Guest of Honour. However, in the 2011 award ceremony at Speke Resort Munyonyo, H.E Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda was the Guest of Honour. He has appeared in various media like the Rock Magazine.
He currently runs Tonniez Invesco Inc., Tonniez Publishing Press, Tonniez Travel Line (TTL) which deals in transportation and tourism, Tonniez Clearing and Forwarding, Tonniez Charity Initiatives (Tonniez Foundation), Tonniez Cleaning Services, Tonniez Events, Tonniez Engineering Prospects and Tonniez Fuels and Energy. To sum it all up, he is the President of the Tonniez Group of Companies.