Nation Media Group (NMG), the media giant with a strong presence in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – has changed faces of nearly half its board as new ownership begins to take full control of operations.
In the latest announcement, NMG confirmed six new directors while four sitting members have stepped down, creating way for a new breed of directors, including a former news anchor at its flagship television station, NTV. The reshuffle, dated 28th August 2026, is the first major shakeup Tanzanian billionaire, Mr Rostam Aziz, has executed since taking over East Africa’s largest media house in March.
Indeed, the latest changes signify a generational – or even ideological – change, with younger minds brought on board, a contrast of previous NMG board that tended to favour older chaps. The changes follow the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development’s sale of its 54.08% stake in NMG to Taarifa Ltd, Aziz’s investment vehicle.
In the new changes, NMG has brought in six directors with backgrounds that span media, banking, advertising, technology and public affairs.
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Georgia Mutagahywa, a non-executive director, arrives after more than three decades in corporate affairs across telecoms, mining, brewing and consumer goods in East Africa. She currently serves as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the Taifa Group, Aziz’s own conglomerate, a detail that signals how closely the new ownership intends to stay involved. Her earlier roles include senior positions at AB InBev East Africa, Vodacom Tanzania and Barrick Tanzania.
Juliana Rotich brings the boardroom’s clearest technology credentials. She co-founded Ushahidi and BRCK, ran fintech at Safaricom, and now leads Kehmett Consulting, which advises governments and companies on digital transformation and artificial intelligence. Fortune has named her among the world’s 50 greatest leaders, and she sits on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s AI Ethics Committee. Her appointment points to where NMG wants to grow: digital subscriptions and paid content, not print runs.
Bharat Thakrar spent five decades building advertising businesses across Africa. He founded Scanad Marketing in 1982 and grew it into Scangroup Plc, which listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2006. Under his leadership, the group expanded into twelve African countries before he stepped down as CEO in March 2021. Forbes Africa named him Advertising Leader of the Year in 2012.
Wilfred Musau carries the banking expertise the board needs. As Managing Director and CEO of the National Bank of Kenya, he steered the institution back to profitability and led the deal that merged it into the KCB Bank Group. He began his career at Standard Chartered and Barclays, now Absa.
Dr Julie Gichuru, an independent non-executive director, is a familiar face to NMG’s own audience. She anchored news at NTV during its launch, a role that puts her return to the group in a full circle.
Since then she has built the Africa Leadership and Dialogue Institute and served as Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer at the Mastercard Foundation, where she led global stakeholder engagement across three continents. She holds an honorary doctorate from Concordia University and Kenya’s Order of the Grand Warrior.
Julius Kipngetich rounds out the group. He is currently Group CEO of Jubilee Holdings and previously ran Equity Bank’s operations, the Kenya Wildlife Service and Uchumi Supermarkets. He was named Kenya’s CEO of the Year in 2009 and has taught management at the University of Nairobi and Strathmore University.
Together, the six directors give NMG a board built around three priorities: digital revenue, financial discipline and closer ties to its new controlling shareholder.
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Four directors resigned effective 28th August 2026: Al-Noor Ramji, who joined in March 2020 and sat on the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee; Sultan Ali Akbar Allana, a former AKFED director who joined NMG’s board in May 2024; Fayyaz Nurmohamed, who served on the Editorial Board Committee; and Prof. Nancy Booker, the Editorial Board Committee’s Deputy Chair.
Allana’s exit is the most telling. He is the same AKFED director who signed the sale documents handing NMG to Aziz in March. His departure, alongside the other AKFED era appointees, marks the formal end of the Aga Khan Fund’s oversight of a company it built from a Kiswahili weekly bought in 1959.
Company Secretary Angela Namwakira confirmed the changes on behalf of the board, thanking the outgoing directors for their service and welcoming the new appointees.
Ownership Change
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development held its NMG stake through NPRT Holdings Africa Limited for 66 years, a period during which NMG launched the Daily Nation, listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 1973, and built The EastAfrican and NTV Kenya into regional institutions. The Fund said it remained confident NMG would continue upholding independent journalism after the sale, while shifting its own focus toward other development priorities.
Aziz is not a newcomer to East African media. He co-founded Mwananchi Communications in 1999, launching The Citizen and Mwanaspoti in Tanzania before NMG itself acquired those titles. He has said the acquisition reflects a commitment to strengthening NMG rather than dismantling it. In his own words, Aziz called himself “honoured and deeply committed to becoming the majority shareholder” of the group, while pledging to protect its editorial independence.
Taarifa Ltd has confirmed it will not launch a buyout offer for the remaining shares or seek to delist NMG from any of the four exchanges where it trades: Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam and Kigali.
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