The Board of Media Trust Group, publishers of the Daily Trust titles, Aminiya and owners of Trust Television, has approved some appointments in line with a new structure for the organization, to meet the demands of its business strategies and focus.
The new structure is to consolidate on the achievements of the media organisation over the years while positioning the Group for the future.
A statement by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Media Trust Group, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, said under the new structure, Media Trust Group has become the Holding company with Trust Television and Trust Radio as subsidiaries, while a third subsidiary, Digital Trust, is expected to commence operations next year.
He said to position the structure for effective and efficient delivery of services, the Board appointed Malam Mounir Gwarzo, as Group Chief Executive Officer. He is to oversee the implementation of the Holding company in line with the new focus of the Board.
Under the new structure, three Group Executive Directors positions namely: Finance and Corporate Services, Business Development and Digital and Editorial were created. The positions are to be headed as follows: Malam Nura Daura (Group ED, Finance and Corporate Services), Malam Naziru Mikailu (Group ED, Digital and Editorial) and Malam Ahmed Shekarau (Group ED, Business Development).
The two subsidiaries; Trust Television and Trust Radio, will be managed by Malam Ibrahim Shehu Adamu and Malam Muhammad Kabir Muhammad, as Chief Operating Officers respectively.
The chairman of the Media Trust Group’s Board congratulated the appointees and expressed confidence in their ability to deliver on the assignment.
About the appointees
Mounir Gwarzo
The new Group MD is a graduate of Economics from Bayero University and did his postgraduate studies in Development Finance from the University of Birmingham-UK. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Stock Brokers of Nigeria.
Gwarzo has worked in both public and private institutions. He was General Manager, Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, Executive Commissioner in charge of Operations, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission. He also attended several management and leadership courses, among them: The Advanced Management Programs (AMPs) at INSEAD, Fountaine Blue-Paris as well as Said Business School, University of Oxford-UK.
Nura Daura
Nura Daura obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and an MBA from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). Daura started his career in Accounting in 1997, with the New Nigeria Development Company Limited (NNDC), Kaduna and rose to the position of Senior Manager before leaving in 2010, to join Media Trust Limited, where he held various management positions, including serving as Acting Chief Executive Officer in the last two years.
Malam Daura has attended several national and international management trainings and is married with three children.
Naziru Mikailu
Mikailu was before the restructuring, Executive Director/ Editor-in-Chief of Daily Trust newspaper. Naziru spent a decade at the BBC World Service in senior management roles. He started his journalism career as an intern with the Triumph newspaper in Kano, before moving to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, to work with the defunct Standard Voice newspaper.
Naziru joined the BBC World Service in 2009, as a multimedia broadcast journalist. Stationed in Nigeria and the UK, he covered global and regional news for multiple BBC outlets before becoming the corporation’s Nigeria Bureau Editor in 2016, leading the organisation’s teams in Nigeria, Niger, Ghana and Cameroon.
The Kano-born journalist is a recipient of the 2018 World Journalist Fellowship at New York University (NYU) where he earned an MA in digital media and innovation. While studying in the United States, he developed a working document on Augmented Reality news app for the Voice of America Digital team. He also worked with American news site, Axios, to help segment their audience and develop new products. Before joining NYU, he had obtained an MA in New Media from the University of Leicester in England and a BA in Mass Communication from Bayero University, Kano.
He has attended several editorial, technical, senior management and leadership courses at the BBC Academy in the UK and the US Knight Centre for Journalism in the Americas.
Mikailu is a member of the Online News Association, the National Association of Black Journalists in the United States and the International News Media Association.
Ahmed Shekarau
Shekarau brings about 25 years’ experience in Journalism and Corporate Communications to his current role in the company. He oversees the Business Division of the Group, which is responsible for sourcing advertisements, promoting sales, commercial printing, events & conferences, brand marketing, as well as research for all the company’s platforms.
Shekarau, who rejoined Media Trust from Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) in 2019, as General Manager Business & Strategy, reached the zenith of his career in journalism in 2005, when he was appointed pioneer Editor, Sunday Trust (now Daily Trust on Sunday). In December last year, he was promoted to the position of Executive Director, Business & Strategy, before the recent change in his job role to Group Executive Director, Business Development.
Shekarau had stints in the corporate communications departments of Unity Bank Plc and defunct Oceanic Bank Plc, though a greater part of his working career has been in the media industry. He was at different times; Business Editor, Daily Trust and Weekly Trust; Political Editor, Daily Trust and Weekly Trust; and also Business Editor, Daily Trust. Before then, he had served as an Intern Reporter with The Nigerian Standard, Jos in 1996. His stints at The Nigerian Standard, and later at the Press Unit of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Information swayed him to delve into journalism practice and thus, his decision to join the Weekly Trust as a Freelance Reporter in 1999.
Shekarau obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communication from the University of Maiduguri, and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Media Arts at the University of Abuja. He has attended numerous professional courses in Journalism and Corporate Communications, and holds a certificate in Economic Journalism. He is a member of various professional bodies, including the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) the Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria (APCON); and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).
Ibrahim Shehu Adamu
Adamu’s journalism career spans over two decades in both national and international media outfits. He joined the services of Media Trust Group (MTG) in 2021, as General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Trust TV, where he worked alongside other management staff to build and equip world-class studios and facilities for the fastest-growing television station.
Before joining the Media Trust Group, Adamu, an international broadcaster, was in Istanbul, Turkey, where he worked at the TRT World as Programme Editor, in charge of news production, coming from Istanbul, London and also Washington. He was with TRT from 2017 to 2020.
Between 2009 and 2012, Adamu was with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). For three years, he worked with the digital team of the BBC Hausa Service and later became a producer.
In 2012, he moved to London to join the BBC World Service Radio programme, Newsday, as a producer. One year after, Adamu crossed over to the BBC World Service Radio Programme, Focus on Africa, as a multi-media producer before joining the Focus on Africa TV team in 2015, where he rose to the position of Senior Output Producer.
Adamu cut his journalism teeth in 2002, twenty years ago at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), as an intern and later became a reporter covering various sensitive beats, including the Kaduna State Government House. In 2005, he joined Nagarta Radio in Kaduna, serving as reporter, news editor and presenter.
Adamu graduated from the Kaduna Polytechnic, where he studied Mass Communication with specialisation in broadcast journalism. He attended various courses in journalism, which molded and sharpened his career.
Muhammad Kabir Muhammad
Muhammad was before this appointment the Head of Digital Operations at the company. He previously worked with Sunday Trust (now Daily Trust on Sunday) as a senior reporter and later Acting Literary Editor from 2006 to 2009, when he moved to the Hausa Service of the BBC.
He worked with different teams across platforms (radio, TV, and digital) in London and in Nigeria, before becoming a senior broadcast journalist in charge of planning and strategy. He also acted as the Abuja Bureau Editor for the BBC.
Muhammad worked on attachment with BBC Media Action, Nigeria, as a senior trainer from December 2018 to May 2019. He led a group of trainers that taught journalists from media partners across Nigeria, in different aspects of broadcast and digital journalism.
He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from Bayero University, Kano and at some point worked as a digital video editor and volunteer reporter.
Muhammmad is an avid reader and enjoys travelling and listening to the radio.
