Mwananchi Communications Ltd is a media Company based in Tanzania[1]. Mwananchi Communications Ltd, engages in the print media and radio, and is the publisher of Tanzania's leading daily newspaper, Mwananchi (in Swahili), and others such as The Citizen, Sunday Citizen, Mwananchi Jumapili and Mwanaspoti.
The company was established in May 1999 by Ambassador Ferdinand Ruhinda[2] as Media Communications Ltd. But in April 2001, a new business was established (Advertising Agency & Public Relations) and a new company was formed - Mwananchi Communications Ltd. In the very same year Mwananchi Communications Ltd was acquired[3][4] by the [[Nation Media Group[5]]][6] (NMG)[7] which is based in Nairobi, Kenya[8].
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It is headquartered at Plot No.34/35 Tabata Relini[9] on Mandela Road, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania[10]. It is part of the Nation Media Group, a publicly listed company, quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, and has about 7,500 shareholders. Its principal shareholder is the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network.
The history of Mwananchi Communications Ltd can be traced back to 1999 when Hon Ferdinand Ruhinda[11] started a communications company known as Media Communications Ltd, which saw a daily Swahili paper (Mwananchi) registered on April 20, 2000. On the 27th of May 2000 the first copy of Mwananchi was launched. It was a 12-paged newspaper retailing at Sh150. The market at the time was not as fragmented as it is now as there were only three mainstream daily Swahili newspapers in the market as opposed to today where we have eight mainstream daily Swahili newspapers. This paper has since had continuous improvement for format and presentation that has seen its leadership position in the market sustained.
Shortly after the launch of Mwananchi, a bi-weekly sports newspaper Mwanaspoti was launched on February 12, 2001 respectively. It was a 12-paged sports paper retailing at only Sh100. This paper has also gone through tremendous improvement for content and format to ensure that the ever changing needs of our readers are met.
After two and half years of successful operations of the two products, in April 2001, the role of publishing was handed over from Media Communications to a newly registered publishing company Mwananchi Communications Ltd. In December 2002, Nation Media Group of Kenya purchased[12] controlling interests in the company and this has since helped to ingrain the company with world class values in editorial management including standardizing the groups editorial policies.
Having registered The Citizen with Tanzania Information Services (Maelezo) on the 2nd of March 2001, the paper was only fully launched and published on September 16 , 2004 to become the 5th English daily newspaper in the market.
The Company’s publications were printed through contract printing until 2005 when it acquired a second hand printing press from Australia.