Mwananchi Communications Ltd is a company based in Tanzania.[1] Mwananchi Communications Ltd, engages in the print media and digital media, and is the publisher of Tanzania's leading daily newspaper, Mwananchi (in Swahili), and others such as The Citizen, Sunday Citizen, Mwananchi Jumapili, Mwananchi Scoop and Mwanaspoti.
The executive editor is Victor Mushi and the Mwananchi daily managing editor is Joseph Nyabukika. Michael Momburi heads Mwanaspoti in Tanzania and Kenya. Mpoki Thomson is the Managing Editor of The Citizen Daily and Sunday Citizen. Upon his appointment to the Managing Editor role in January 2021, he became the youngest editor to hold such a position at 28 years old.
Bakari Machumu, the Managing Director of the company.
Mwananchi Communications Limited was established in May 1999 by Ambassador Ferdinand Ruhinda[2] as Media Communications Ltd. But in April 2001, 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]
Mwananchi Communications Ltd. was founded in 1999 when Hon. Ferdinand Ruhinda[2] started a communications company known as Media Communications Ltd, which saw an important need to introduce a daily Swahili paper Mwananchi registered on April 20, 2000. On May 27, 2000, the first copy of Mwananchi was launched. It was a 12-page 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 the eight mainstream daily Swahili papers today. 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 biweekly sports newspaper Mwanaspoti was launched on February 12, 2001. It was a 12-page sports paper retailing at Sh100.
In April 2001, two and a half years after launching the products, 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[5] controlling interests in the company.
Having registered The Citizen with Tanzania Information Services (Maelezo) on March 2, 2001, the paper was only fully launched and published on September 16, 2004, to become the fifth English daily newspaper in the market.
The Company's publications were printed by contract until 2005, when it acquired a secondhand printing press from Australia.
In 2020 it was ordered by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority to suspend the online publication of Mwananchi for six months and pay a fine of 5 million shilling for publishing "misleading information that caused confusion in the community".[11] Two of its employees were arrested and charged accused of breaching the cybercrimes act of 2015.[12]
