South Africa Has the 5 Most Valuable Brands in Africa, No Nigerian Coy Made the Top 20

A list of the top 150 most valuable brands in Africa has just been released by company valuation and strategy consultancy company, Brand Finance. The list features companies from 19 African countries including Nigeria.

While companies from South Africa dominated the top of the list, Nigerian companies were conspicuously missing as none made the top 10. The highest-ranked Nigerian company is Glo Mobile which comes in 25th on the list after the likes of ShopRite, MTN and Tiger Brands. The top five companies are South African brands. Here they are.

#1 MTN

Telecommunications company, MTN Group, started in 1994 and has since expanded across Africa and outside the continent. It is present in 21 countries and is currently valued by Brand Finance at $3.349 billion.

This is, however, a 1% reduction from its 2019 valuation of $3.382 billion. Recently, the Group restructured personnel in C-level leadership positions in Benin and Cameroon. This puts Uche Ofodile at the helm of affairs in MTN Benin while Stephen Blewett took over for MTN Cameroon.

The company has also been gaining subscribers in Nigeria over the past months as the stats from the Nigerian Communications Commission show. It recently suspended its mobile money services in Uganda after being hacked in the country.

#2 Vodacom

Vodacom is the second most-valuable African brand on the list. It currently has a brand valuation of $2.052 billion. It was established in 1994 and covers about 289 million people with its mobile networks. The brand’s business offerings are used by organizations in 42 countries.

Vodacom’s brand valuation decreased by 8.3% from its 2019 value of $2.239 billion. In 2019, Vodacom partnered with Altron and Toyota to roll out new Toyota and Lexus cars that are wifi-enabled and have in-car connectivity.

Before the spectrum license for the 5G was officially granted in South Africa, the company used a temporary license to demonstrate 5G transmission during its Vodacom Durban July event in 2019.

#3 First National Bank (FNB)

FNB is one of the top 5 banks in South Africa and is a sub-division of the financial services conglomerate; First Rand Limited. The bank started in 1838 in Grahamstown and became a wholly South African owned and controlled entity in 1987.

Currently, the FNB brand is valued at $1.617 billion which is a 5.8% drop from its $1.716 billion valuation in 2019. The bank provides financial and credit services and is headquartered in Johannesburg.

#4 ABSA

ABSA is the second most-valued bank in Africa and South Africa. It has a brand valuation of $1.54 billion, which is a 2.5% drop from its $1.579 billion valuation in 2019. The bank has consistently been listed among the 500 most-valuable banking brands in the world since 2008.

The financial institution is also the 152nd most-valuable bank in the world. It was created in 1991 and currently operates in 12 African countries.

#5 Old Mutual

Old Mutual is the 5th brand on the list and provides insurance, investment, savings and banking services in 17 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. The brand is valued at $1.375 billion and is the one among the top 5 to enjoy the biggest growth in valuation since 2019.

It witnessed a 16.4% increase from the $1.182 billion it was valued at in 2019. The group marked 175 years in operations in May 2020.

The other Nigerian companies that made the list aside Glo Mobile (25th) are: Nigerian Breweries (28th), Dangote Cement (42nd), Zenith Bank (45th), Access Bank (51st), United Bank of Africa (54th), GT bank (58th), First Bank (66th), Hero Lager (76th), Life Continental Lager (77th), Star (95th), Goldberg (104th), Transaction Capital (116th), Telmob (132nd), Fayrouz (134th), and The Fix (135th).