Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz's Nation Media Group holds pivotal post-takeover AGM

Nation Media Group held its annual general meeting on June 26, 2026, the most consequential gathering of shareholders in the company's history since its 1973 listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, coming three months after Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Aziz's Taarifa Limited completed its acquisition of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development's controlling 54.08 percent stake and ended six decades of Aga Khan stewardship over East and Central Africa's most influential media organisation.

Aziz had pledged to transform the media landscape in East Africa following the announcement that his Taifa Group would acquire a majority stake in Nation Media Group. The deal, one of the most significant ownership changes in the regional media industry in recent history, saw Aziz's investment vehicle Taarifa Limited take control of 92,618,177 ordinary shares in NMG, representing 54.08 percent of the company's issued share capital.

AKFED announced on March 10, 2026 that it had entered into an agreement to sell its 100 percent shareholding in NPRT Holdings Africa Limited to Taarifa Ltd. NPRT Holdings Africa Limited holds 92,618,177 ordinary shares in Nation Media Group, representing 54.08 percent of the company's total issued share capital, effectively handing Aziz a controlling majority stake in the largest independent media house in East and Central Africa.

Taarifa Ltd confirmed it does not intend to make a mandatory or voluntary takeover offer for the remaining NMG shares. The company also pledged not to delist NMG from any of the four securities exchanges on which it is currently listed — the NSE, the Uganda Securities Exchange, the Rwanda Stock Exchange, and the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.

The June 26 AGM was the first shareholder meeting under Aziz's control, making it the formal institutional moment at which the new majority owner's direction for the company would begin to be translated from public pledges into governance decisions. The meeting comes at a critical juncture for a media house that has weathered years of shrinking print revenues, editorial redundancies and the bruising pivot to digital, while retaining its position as the dominant editorial voice across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

The sale has raised concerns about potential political interference with the region's most influential news outlets. Concerns centre on Aziz's ties to regional leaders and the scale of Nation Media's operations, which employ hundreds of journalists across television, radio, and print in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. At stake is the group's editorial independence and whether its journalists will continue to report freely without fear of state pressure, as well as public trust in one of East Africa's most influential media institutions.

Aziz was named Tanzania's first dollar billionaire by Forbes magazine in 2013. He built his wealth through Taifa Group whose business holdings span mining, aviation, media and energy. Over the years, the tycoon has maintained close relationships with former Tanzanian heads of state and the current president, Samia Suluhu Hassan. In Kenya, he has openly shown his closeness with President William Ruto who commissioned Aziz's $130 million liquefied gas plant in Mombasa in 2023.

Aziz addressed those concerns directly when the transaction was announced. Speaking to journalists, the businessman pushed back firmly, insisting the NMG acquisition was a purely commercial and strategic investment aimed at modernising the group. He said Ruto was not the first Kenyan leader he had been close to, also citing his friendship with former President Uhuru Kenyatta, as well as former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. "I believe in relationships. Those are personal relationships, they have nothing to do with commercial considerations," Aziz said.

Nation Media Group is, by any measure, the dominant media force in East and Central Africa. Founded on March 20, 1960, with the launch of the Daily Nation, the group has grown into a multi-platform conglomerate operating more than 30 brands across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Its portfolio includes the Daily Nation, Business Daily, The EastAfrican, Daily Monitor in Uganda, NTV Kenya, NTV Uganda, KFM, and several radio and digital platforms. Its digital audience exceeded 62 million users in 2024, making it one of the most-read media organisations on the continent.

Aziz is not a novice in the media business. In the late 1990s, he co-founded Mwananchi Communications, which published the Mwananchi, The Citizen and Mwanaspoti newspapers in Tanzania before the company was later acquired by NMG. His return to media ownership through NMG therefore represents a completion of a circle that began when he first entered the industry more than two decades ago, this time at a scale that makes him not just a shareholder in a regional media house but the controlling owner of the institution that defines East African journalism.