DEAL! Aga Khan Sells Nation Media Group – Owner of Daily Monitor and NTV

Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda logos

Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development S.A. (Akfed) has agreed to sell Nation Media Group PLC (NMG).

An agreement has already been reached to sell Aga Khan’s 100 per cent shareholding in Nation Media Group.

The buyer is Taarifa Ltd, a company owned by Rostam Azizi.

A well known Tanzanian businessman, Rostam Azizi’s business interests are in the areas of telecommunications, media, mining, real estate, agriculture and energy.

Akfed will now sell all of its shareholding in NPRT Holdings Africa Limited — which holds 50.48 per cent shares in NMG — to Taarifa Limited.

AKFED has been associated with Nation Media Group since 1959. The deal to sell NMG to Taarifa Limited ends an ownership that has lasted 66 years.

Akfed and Taarifa Ltd have issued a joint statement, indicating that the deal will expand the media group.

“NMG is now poised to expand its impact through further investment in its digital transformation. Taarifa Ltd is committed to supporting this transition and accelerating NMG’s digital growth, enabling the group to strengthen its connection with customers and build on its long-standing tradition of public interest journalism,” the joint statement read in part.

In Uganda, President Museveni has over the years blasted “evil” Daily Monitor and NTV Uganda, with the elderly head of state once seeking to make the two media outlets bankrupt through a law suit, as reported Here, There and Over There.

Samuel Kamugisha

Samuel Kamugisha is a Ugandan journalist, editor, translator, language instructor, poet, fiction and non-fiction writer. A Makerere University graduate of Journalism and Communication with a decade-long experience in news reporting, writing and editing, Kamugisha is Editor at The Pearl Times. His other journalistic work was published by The Observer. When he is not doing journalism work -- which is rare -- Kamugisha will be reading or writing a short story or a poem, or caught up in the writer's block. His new children's book 'Friends of Plastics' has been published by Room to Read and Reading Association of Uganda and can be read here: https://literacycloud.org/stories/7887-friends-of-plastic/