Top business leader named MCL board chairman

Dar es Salaam. Mr Leonard Mususa, a seasoned Tanzanian professional accountant and respected business leader, has been appointed Chairman of the Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) Board of Directors. He takes over from Ms Zuhura Muro.

MCL, a subsidiary of Nation Media Group (NMG), publishes Tanzania’s leading newspapers - The Citizen, Mwananchi and Mwanaspoti.

NMG Chairman Wilfred Kiboro welcomed Mr Mususa to the MCL and NMG family. He said the group was lucky to get someone of Mr Mususa’s knowledge and experience.

“Mr Mususa joins us at a time of great challenges and also great opportunities in the media and we look forward to his contribution, counsel and guidance as we make decisions on growing our circulation and advertising revenues,” said Mr Kiboro.

Mr Kiboro said the new MCL chairman will bolster efforts to improve MCL’s content to remain relevant to its constituents and also, in playing the role as independent and balanced reporters of events that are important to Tanzania and to the greater Eastern Africa region.

Other MCL Board members are Prof Palamagamba Kabudi, a Professor of Law at the University of Dar es Salaam, Mr John Ulanga a former Executive Director of the Foundation for Civil Society, Mr Hanif Jaffer, a qualified Certified Public Accountant and Mr Mohamed Rweyemamu, an engineer and businessman. Mr Mususa said he was pleased to be joining one of the fastest growing media houses in Tanzania with a strong market leadership and excellence in journalism practice.

He said he will be working with his Board and management to ensure readers were well served.

“In addition to continuously evaluating the news content of our newspapers, we will be looking at our distribution channels to ensure that more and more people have access to our papers and other media platforms.” 

He said newspaper readership in Tanzania was still a fraction of its market potential. “There is still a huge potential to recruit more readers if we get our news content and distribution channels right.”

He said MCL needed to continue building a team of world class journalists to lead in the fast evolving media sector. “I want MCL to provide news that is relevant, timely and accurate to its readers on platforms that are convenient to them,” he said.

Mr Mususa said management and employees should ensure that government and business leaders as well as the ordinary citizens thought of MCL products first when they want to stay well informed on matters relevant to their work and lives.

“In this important year of the referendum and elections in Tanzania, MCL  must play a leading role in making sure our readers are well informed so that they can make their choices from a position of knowledge. We need to be reporting in a balanced way without fear or favour,” said Mr Mususa.

MCL Managing Director, Mr Francis Nanai said he was happy to welcome Mr Mususa whom he said was well vast in leadership and management. 

 “Mr Mususa comes with expertise and experience that MCL requires more now than before to propel the business to greater heights,” said Mr Nanai.

Mr Nanai said MCLproducts continues to be market leaders on both fronts – circulation and advertisement revenues current industry challenges notwithstanding.