Pretax profit at Kenya's Nation Media Group fell 16.4 per cent to Sh1.6 billion ($15.83 million) in 2018, the company tweeted on Wednesday.
The decline was "mostly due to depressed regional economies. Also impacted by discontinuation of government advertising business from July 2018 due to inordinate delays in settling outstanding debts," the company said.
Nation, the biggest publisher in East Africa, also operates in Uganda and Tanzania and runs radio and television stations in addition to a newspaper business.
The other listed media house in Kenya is the Standard Group which is yet to release its full-year results.
In December last year, ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru said the debt to media houses by the government will be cleared "soon". He did not give a timeline.
The Government Advertising Agency owes media houses about Sh2.5 billion, a debt that accrued over the last three years.
($1 = 101.1000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Omar Mohammed; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Mark Potter)
