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One of East Africa's most consequential media transactions just closed. The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development has sold its controlling stake in Nation Media Group to Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz, ending a relationship with the region's most influential media house that stretches back 66 years to the tail end of the colonial era.
The deal was signed Tuesday at Serena Hotel in Nairobi, where Aziz and Sultan Ali Allana, director of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, put their names to documents transferring 92,618,177 ordinary shares in NMG, held through a vehicle called NPRT Holdings Africa Limited. That block of shares represents a 54.08% controlling stake in the Nairobi-listed media group. Azizi's acquisition vehicle is Taarifa Ltd, an affiliate of his Taifa Group.
No financial terms were disclosed. Based on NMG's closing share price of 13.25 Kenyan shillings on Tuesday, the stake carries a market valuation of approximately 1.23 billion Kenyan shillings, or roughly $9.5 million at current exchange rates, though the actual transaction price was not made public.
NMG shares will continue trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and on the three other regional exchanges where the stock is cross-listed: the Uganda Securities Exchange, the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange and the Rwanda Securities Exchange. Azizi has confirmed he does not intend to launch a buyout offer for the remaining shares or delist the company from any of those markets.
The transaction ends an association that began in 1959 when His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV acquired the Kiswahili weekly Taifa Leo during the final years of British colonial rule in Kenya. The following year, the Daily Nation launched on March 20, 1960, and quickly grew into one of the most widely read newspapers in East Africa. NMG listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange in 1973, one of the first media companies on the continent to do so. Over the decades it expanded into Uganda and Tanzania, built a television and radio presence and assembled a portfolio of more than 30 brands reaching a combined digital audience of more than 62 million users across the region. The group employs more than 1,000 people.
"AKFED is proud of its contribution to building one of Africa's most respected media institutions," Allana said in a statement. "We are confident NMG will continue to uphold the values of independent journalism and service to the public that have defined it for over six decades."
Azizi is not a stranger to the region's media business. He co-founded Mwananchi Communications in Tanzania between 2000 and 2006, the publisher behind Mwananchi, The Citizen and Mwanaspoti newspapers. Nation Media Group later acquired that business as part of its own regional expansion. He currently controls Habari Corporation, another Tanzanian media operation, and runs the Taifa Group across sectors including mining, telecommunications, agriculture, real estate, port facilities, energy and construction. Forbes named him Tanzania's first dollar billionaire in 2013.
His track record in media, though, has not been without friction. Reports in recent years have cited instances where he pushed Nation Media to pull down editorial content and issue apologies, raising questions about his appetite for independent journalism. He moved quickly on Tuesday to address those concerns directly.
"NMG is an institution of profound importance to East Africa, and we will uphold its editorial independence while investing in its continued success as the region's leading independent media organisation," Azizi said.
NMG chief executive Geoffrey Odundo said operations would continue without interruption through the ownership transition. The deal is expected to close within three to four months, subject to regulatory approvals from the relevant authorities in Kenya and other jurisdictions where NMG operates.
The Aga Khan Fund said its commitment to journalism in the region would continue through the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications, which has trained thousands of journalists and media professionals in East Africa since its launch in 2015.
The sale arrives at a moment of acute pressure for legacy media across the continent. Publishers are racing to convert large online audiences into sustainable revenue as print advertising continues its long decline. Azizi said NMG is positioned to expand its impact through further investment in digital transformation, and Taarifa Ltd committed to accelerating that shift.
What that looks like in practice, and whether editorial independence survives the change in ownership, will become clearer once regulatory approvals are in hand and the transaction formally closes.
