EA is ripe for business; Nation’s success in the region is proof
Linus Gitahi has been at the helm of the Nation Media Group — East Africa’s largest media house with holdings in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya — for eight and a half years. He left the group on June 30, 2015. PHOTO | FILE |
Linus Gitahi has been at the helm of the Nation Media Group — East Africa’s largest media house with holdings in Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya — for eight and a half years. He spoke to Pamella Sittoni on doing business in the region, leadership and his plans for the future.
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How has doing business in East Africa been? If there’s one area that has made me grow in this role as CEO, it’s dealing with East Africa. It’s been good because we’re running a profitable business across the region.
So, would you say East Africa is a profitable investment destination?
Absolutely. There is a lot of potential. When we started in 2006, our business in Tanzania was loss-making. Today, it is making tonnes of money — about $50 million. In Uganda, we launched NTV Uganda and it quickly became number one and very profitable. At one point, it was even more profitable than the business in Kenya. We went to Rwanda and launched KFM and The EastAfrican edition and when we combine those two businesses we’re also profitable in Rwanda.
But some of the countries are a little slow in embracing integration, and I really don’t understand why because, as President Yoweri Museveni often says, we’re all pygmies, but we’re always having conversations about who’s taller. I think it’s a high time we realised that we’re pygmies and start talking as one to make us a little taller.
Has NMG gained any benefits from the East African Community integration?
Yes. In Kenya, we’re the leading media house. In Uganda, we’re not only the leading media house, but also the most profitable. It’s only that when people look at the Monitor Publications Ltd and NTV Uganda separately, they don’t realise that we’re the number one media house, even in terms of audiences.
In Tanzania, we have the biggest circulating newspaper by far. So, from an influence point of view, we have been extraordinarily successful. From a revenue point of view, it’s coming through and the combined East African business is very profitable.
What needs to improve for businesses to fully enjoy the benefits of integration, particularly the Common Markets Protocol?
That’s one of the areas I’m intent on working on further as chairman of the Federation of Kenya Employers. Rwanda and Kenya have led the way by removing the barriers to free movement of labour between them. Uganda follows closely behind, while Tanzania still has a bit of a gap.
What encourages me is that in the past one year, I’ve met and spoken to many of the presidential aspirants in Tanzania and they all point out the need to integrate Tanzania fully with the rest of East Africa.
It is unacceptable that today, our countries still import basic items like paper clips. If someone had a paper clip factory in Dar es Salaam, for instance, the costs would come down to help the product to compete with that from China. That would create employment, bring back those jobs we have been exporting and prevent our youth from being recruited into terror organisations.
Running NMG required you to navigate different political landscapes. How was the experience?
That is one of the areas that one has had to grow in. What I am grateful for — and thank the Nation Media Group, the Editorial Board Committee and the journalists — is the fact that we are independent and responsible. But not everybody believes that. So, there have been times when we’ve been branded this or that.
I remember the 2007-2008 post-election period in Kenya. We would have meetings with the Editorial Board Committee and say: “This is Kenya on trial, what do we do?” One of the things we did, which we hardly ever talk about — and I want to thank Francis Okello, the chairman of the Editorial Board Committee — we agreed to bring together anybody who had been associated with peace to talk and start changing the narrative.
Because what was coming from everywhere was bloodshed and the newspaper was all about bloodshed. We managed to get Bethwel Kiplagat, Lt-Gen (Rtd) Daniel Opande and other leaders, who formed the Concerned Citizens for Peace. As soon as they got together, we stepped back because we wanted all the media in Kenya to benefit from a new narrative that would bring peace.
Shortly after, Nation Media Group vans were burnt in different parts of the country, and I remember flying to Kisumu and walking in the streets with local leaders to demonstrate that NMG was independent.
They took me to the bus stop and market and we saw people from different communities working together, and this was covered by our media outlets. This helped to diffuse some of the tensions. This made me very proud of that region and to date, I do a lot of charity work there. Those are some of the political situations I have had to deal with.
What kind of encounters did you have with the region’s political leaders, particularly the presidents?
My most interesting encounters were with President Museveni, whom I hold in high regard and whom I always look forward to having a dialogue with.
But, he has not always treated me well. I remember when the Monitor was shut down, and the premises cordoned off as a scene of crime, I flew to Kampala with our board chairman Wilfred Kiboro.
We were informed that the president had left for Addis Ababa. We had to immediately fly to Addis Ababa, through Nairobi, without even a change of clothes. You can imagine the chairman and I hovering in the streets of Addis Ababa, trying to find anyone who could help us see President Museveni.
We finally managed to see him and discussed our editorial policy, which he said he has a lot of regard for, but which he said we were violating. We engaged him and this led to the reopening of the Monitor.
I had been to Uganda on a similar mission, when NTV was shut down. I had an appointment for 8am but ended up seeing the president at midnight. And I had to remain stationary because I was waiting to be picked up. Those are some of the interesting encounters. But all that pales when compared with the actual conversations you end up having with the president.
Is the legal environment uniform across the region? Was this a challenge?
The legal environment on paper is almost similar. The difference is in the application. For example, right now, The EastAfrican is banned in Tanzania, ostensibly because it was not registered as a newspaper. For 20 years we did not have to register. And it was not accidental.
The Economist is not registered there, Time Magazine is not registered there, Forbes is not registered there. Why? Because they are global publications. And The EastAfrican is an East African newspaper. Everybody was happy with that. That’s why we have been in that market for the past 20 years.
But when someone had a problem, possibly with the way we were treating Tanzania matters, they went back to their records to find out if we were registered and shut us down on that basis.
The issue in East Africa, therefore, is the fact that people can interpret the law in different ways that lead to different conclusions and outcomes. The other thing about the law, and which as I leave NMG concerns me, are the media Bills in all the countries.
As we approach the elections, as is the case in Tanzania, politicians tend to want to restrict what media can or cannot do. I think the realisation that the media is a part of society, that one ought to work with and that the media exists for the good of society, need to be entrenched.
I remember sometime back in the Tanzanian Parliament, it was acknowledged that, had it not been for Mwananchi, scandals such as Richmond would not have been unearthed. Then three months later, you want to shut down the same media because this time it affects you. We need a situation where we respect the media and the media is responsible. We need to ensure the media occupies its rightful place as the Fourth Estate.
NMG’s expansion in East Africa has not included Burundi. Why?
There’s no reason for that, and in fact, that is one of my regrets. Unfortunately, we had always considered Burundi as French-speaking and we did not have the capability to venture into French media, only to discover, not too long ago, that 60 per cent of Burundi’s population speaks Kiswahili.
So, there is no reason why we cannot have a Kiswahili publication, television or radio station. We’ve applied for licences for all those. I hope this is something NMG will continue to pursue to complete the East African integration.
The other area I have a regret about is South Sudan. We had moved in and even set up an office, with every intention of investing further. But the authorities shut the border for media, and would not even allow the Daily Nation or The EastAfrican to circulate there. That made us to pull back a little. I hope that successive governments will reconsider and revive the plan to go into that market.
What do you consider the most defining changes in the media landscape you have contributed to during your tenure?
In the industry, the Media Act of 2007 in Kenya. NMG was instrumental in ensuring that we could self-regulate, but in a statutory way. We have a Complaints Commission whose decisions are binding in law and its members are people of good standing in society, including lawyers. That is something I’m excited about.
On the commercial front, I’m excited that we are beginning to recognise different aspects of businesses. Before, we only recognised the top companies, where the big names would always win. We changed that a little and started to recognise small and medium-size enterprises through the Top 100 initiative, which was born in this office.
Now it is in four countries — Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda — and I tell you, when you recognise those companies, they want to put that logo on their letterheads, their trucks, etc, because, for most of them, that’s the first time they’ve ever been recognised.
Internally, I’m very proud of the culture that we’ve created — openness, transparency, “Ask the CEO,” which continues on the Intranet — and that has helped to get rid of some of the stuff we used to have, including the scandalous material that was being circulated around.
How have you prepared NMG for the digital revolution?
I’m glad that we created the Digital Division. Our digital platforms are very successful. Nation.co.ke is now way bigger than the print, and Nairobi News is the biggest within the division. We will continue to invest in our digital platforms across the region.
The trouble with digital is that building a large audience is one thing and monetising it is another. We’re partnering with the New York Times, thanks to His Highness the Aga Khan, who helped us to make those contacts, but even they are struggling with the question of monetisation. But together we’re driving the audiences and the challenge of the next generation of leadership is to monetise the platforms.
When we launched NationHela, it was actually an attempt at monetising that audience, particularly the people who wanted to send money back home. So we need to keep looking at innovative ways of monetising that audience. I am glad that we now have a division that exists solely to drive that agenda.
What has been your greatest leadership lesson?
My greatest leadership lesson is that it’s about the people. I rose through the ranks and led GlaxoSmithkline, which had many people. In fact, in West Africa, it has more people than the Nation Media Group. But a big chunk of the work is in the factory. You have to ensure you have good quality products, so you invest in the right equipment and have workers who can ensure that the product comes out.
In a media house, you have the same population, but what you call a factory — because it is a factory of ideas — consists of journalists, many of whom are more educated than you, and they are your subordinates.
So how you deal with very intelligent people, from whom you want to get results is one of the biggest lessons that I learnt. The lesson is that it is about the people: Understanding them, sharing in their fears, their hopes, their aspirations and, really, assuring each other and ensuring that you’re together in that journey. I think that’s what we have done very well in NMG. I’ve never felt alone. And I hope they’ve not felt alone.
You are also a very astute investor. What are you looking at?
Investment is a great thing, but the whole thing about money is not something that I’m very hot about. You know that I give away my money quite a bit. I’m educating 60 children in Baraka Foundation, which I founded and which I continue to fund.
My biggest concern is whether I can continue at that scale, but I trust God that I will. I would like to be judged on how much employment I create. That, for me, is a key performance indicator.
After being at the helm of one of Africa’s top publishing houses, what can tempt you from retirement?
First of all, let’s define this retirement. I have retired from formal employment. The reason is that I have risen through the ranks from a trainee to being a CEO for 15 years. I think I’m done with that now. So, let’s not kid ourselves that I have retired. I want to be a creator of people’s pay slips, as opposed to a recipient of one.
