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NMG chief executive Joe Muganda to exit group in January

Tuesday December 12 2017
Joe

Nation Media Group CEO Joe Muganda speaks at Nation Centre in Nairobi during a meeting on September 4, 2017. He will leave the company on January 31, 2018. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By The EastAfrican

Nation Media Group chief executive Joseph Muganda will leave the company at the end of January 2018, the board of directors announced on Monday.

Upon his departure, Mr Muganda will be replaced by the current Group Finance Director, Mr Stephen Gitagama, in an acting capacity as the board seeks a substantive replacement.

The outgoing CEO joined the company in July 2015 upon the expiry of the term of Mr Linus Gitahi, who was at the helm for 10 years from November 2006.

In a short address to staff at Nation Centre in Nairobi on Monday, Mr Muganda said he would be taking up another role after his exit from NMG, and took pride in successfully presiding over a business re-engineering strategy to position the company on a digital growth path.

Digital growth

His quick wins on the digital front were echoed by NMG Group Chairman Wilfred Kiboro, who said Mr Muganda had “aggressively driven our product portfolio review, presided over a general restructuring and re-oriented the business to seize the opportunities presented by the digital disruption in the media sector”.

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“He will leave a leaner, nimbler organisation whose future commercial success is already evident in the positive trajectory of returns from the investments in digital initiatives,” said Mr Kiboro. “We wish him well in his future pursuits.”

Mr Kiboro assured all NMG shareholders, stakeholders and the public that corporate leadership changes are normal, and that the transition will be seamless and expeditious.

Largest footprint

NMG, which is publicly-listed, is the most successful media company in East and Central Africa, and currently boasts the largest digital footprint with visitors reaching more than 30 million monthly.

It publishes the Nation and Taifa Leo newspaper brands in Kenya, The EastAfrican regional newspaper, the Daily Monitor in Uganda, the Mwananchi, The Citizen and Mwanaspoti newspapers in Dar es Salaam and a raft of e-papers and other online content assets.

Also in its stable are NTV in Kenya, and NTV and Spark television stations as well as K-FM and Dembe radios in Uganda.

The company is cross-listed on the Kampala, Dar es Salaam and Kigali securities exchanges.

Reported by Bernard Mwinzi.

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