The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development just announced they're stepping away completely, selling off their entire stake in the company after owning it since 1959. That's sixty-six years of being in charge, now coming to an end.
So here's how it breaks down. AKFED owned this company called NPRT Holdings Africa Ltd, which holds 54.08 percent of NMG's shares. We're talking about 92,618,177 shares trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. That's a whole lot of control changing hands.
The buyer is Taarifa Ltd, which belongs to Rostam Azizi. He's a businessman from Tanzania, pretty well known around East Africa. What he plans to do with NMG is anyone's guess right now, but his company put out a statement saying they want to push the group's digital transformation forward. They also mentioned keeping editorial independence, which is probably what everyone wants to hear right now.
It's wild to think about how long this connection lasted. The Aga Khan first got into East African media back when he set up East African Newspapers and picked up Taifa Leo, the Swahili daily. That was 1959. Since then NMG grew into this massive media house across the region, newspapers, TV, digital, the whole package.
Now it's someone else's turn to run things.
This sale is probably one of the biggest media ownership shakeups East Africa has seen in years. You don't just replace that kind of history overnight. The Aga Khan's name has been attached to independent media in this part of the world for generations, so this really marks the end of an era.
No details yet on what Rostam Azizi might change once he takes over. The deal still has to go through, but it looks like it's happening. People inside NMG are probably watching closely, wondering what comes next.
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