Michael Ngaleku Shirima (1 January 1943 – 9 June 2023) was a Tanzanian businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chairman of

Precision Air Precision Air Services Plc (operating as Precision Air; DSE:PAL) is a Tanzanian airline based at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam. The airline operates scheduled passenger services to Nairobi, Entebbe, and to various airp ...

, Tanzania's largest privately owned airline. He served in that role from 1993 until his death on 9 June 2023, at the age of 80.

Background

Shirima was born in Usseri Rombo District,

Kilimanjaro Region Kilimanjaro Region (''Mkoa wa Kilimanjaro'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital and largest city is the municipality of Moshi. With a HDI of 0.613, Kilimajaro is one among the most developed regions ...

, Tanzania. He studied in Tanzanian schools for his pre-university education. He studied at the ''University College Nairobi'' (now the

University of Nairobi , mottoeng = In unity and work , image = Uon emblem.gif , image_size = 210px , caption = Coat of Arms of the University , type = Public , endowment ...

). Later he graduated as a certified aircraft performance engineer, from the Aviation College, Perth, Scotland.

Career

After his studies, Shirima found employment with the defunct

East African Airways East African Airways Corporation, more commonly known as East African Airways, was an airline jointly run by Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It was set up on 1 January 1946, starting operations the same year. The airline was headquartered in the Sa ...

(EAC). When the first EAC collapsed in 1977, he was one of executives who started the Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC), which today is the national carrier Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL). On 10 January 1979, he resigned as the Executive Director of Operations, due to "excessive political interference in the operations of the airline". After starting a cropdusting service, using a leased airplane, he began coffee growing, processing and export. Shirima started

in 1993, with a twin-engine five-seater airplane, a

Piper Aztec The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Origin ...

. Using

Arusha Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern b ...

as its base, the airline began by providing

charter flight Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flight ...

s to tourists visiting

Serengeti National Park The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in northern Tanzania that stretches over . It is located entirely in eastern Mara Region and north east portion of Simiyu Region and contains over of virgin savanna. The park was established ...

Ngorongoro Crater The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (, ) is a protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Ngorongoro District, west of Arusha City in Arusha Region, within the Crater Highlands geological area of northern Tanzania. The area is n ...

, the island of

Unguja Unguja (also referred to as "Zanzibar Island" or simply "Zanzibar", in grc, Μενουθιάς, Menuthias – as mentioned in The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'') is the largest and most populated island of the Zanzibar archipelago, in Tanza ...

, and other tourist attractions in Tanzania. As customer numbers grew, the airline acquired more equipment and began scheduled flights maintaining Arusha as its base. In 2003,

Kenya Airways Kenya Airways Ltd., more commonly known as Kenya Airways, is the flag carrier airline of Kenya. The company was founded in 1977, after the dissolution of East African Airways. Its head office is located in Embakasi, Nairobi, with its hub at ...

, the largest airline in East Africa, acquired 49 percent shareholding in Precision Air for a cash sum of US$2 million. The shares of

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

of Precision Air were listed on the

Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) is a stock exchange located on Ohio Street, west of Kivukoni, south east of Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital and largest city in Tanzania. It was incorporated in September 1996 and trading started in ...

(DSE). , Tanzanian media reports indicated that Michael Shirima was the largest shareholder in the

of the airline.

Other responsibilities

In addition to his aviation interests, Shirima owned 4.98 percent of the stock of

I&M Bank (Tanzania) I&M Bank Tanzania Limited is a commercial bank in Tanzania headquartered in Dar es Salaam and a subsidiary of Kenyan based I&M Bank Group. It is licensed by the Bank of Tanzania, the central bank and national banking regulator. , the bank was a ...

, a medium-sized commercial bank. As of December 2021, the bank's total assets were valued at about TZS:587.09 billion (about US$248.12 million), as of 31 December 2021. Then, 16.63 percent of total assets were shareholders' funds, which calculated out to TZS:97,633,067,000 (about US$41.26 million), according to the bank's annual report for calendar year 2021. At that time Michael Shirima's shareholding in I&M Bank (Tanzania) was valued at TZS:4,862,126,377 (about US$2.055 million). Shirima also sat on the bank's board of directors until his death. He was the founder and

proprietor Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

of Cornelius Ngaleku Orphanage, located in Useri Division, Rombo District,

, in northern Tanzania. The

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abu ...

looks after homeless children picked up on the streets of Tanzanian cities. Shirima also served as the Chairman of Tanzania Golf Union (TGU).

Books authored

Shirima's autobiography ''"On My Father's Wings: An Entrepreneurial Journey of Finding Humility, Resiliency, and a Lasting Legacy"'' was published in 2022.

References

External links