Africa’s Best Companies 2024: West Africa remains stable

West and Central Africa includes more countries than any other African region, yet only three are represented in both our African Top 250 and the West African Top 20: Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Nigerian companies account for 7.78% of our Top 250, up from 9.25% last year. Ghanaian companies represent 0.44% of the value of this year’s Top 250, compared to 0.34% last year, but this increase was overshadowed by Ivory Coast’s increase from 1.53% to 1.81% over the same period . Dangote Cement tops our regional West African Top 20 with a value of $8.9 billion. While this is $1 billion less than last year, it is still enough to overtake MTN Nigeria, which drops to fourth place following a massive drop in market capitalization from $6.9 billion to $3.7 billion. Second-place BUA Foods has seen its value rise from $4 billion in 2023 to $5.2 billion in this year’s survey.

Telecom companies in particular are well represented here and supply five of the ten largest companies in the region. Airtel Africa has just overtaken MTN Nigeria as the largest telecom operator in Nigeria by market capitalization, although this does not directly reflect market share. According to February figures from the Nigerian Communications Commission, MTN is the market leader with 80.9 million subscribers, ahead of Airtel with 63 million and Globacom with 62.1 million. Senegal’s Sonatel (listed on the BRVM Stock Exchange and headquartered in Ivory Coast), Orange Ivory Coast and Ghana’s Scancom all recorded steady increases in value as the telecoms sector delivered stable growth, with operators now expanding the range of services they offer.

Given the overwhelming size of the country’s economy, Nigeria understandably dominates our regional table with 14 of the 20 largest listed companies in West Africa, leaving four for Côte d’Ivoire – one more than last year – and two for Ghana. Ecobank Transnational, which has pan-African operations rather than specifically Ivorian operations, is a newcomer to the Top 20, having increased its market capital from $451 million to $634 million.

Central Africa does not have a single company in our continental Top 250 or regional Top 20, largely because the region’s economies are driven by the oil, gas and mining sectors, which are controlled by domestic state-owned companies and their partners from outside the region. continent. For example, Central Africa highlights the limited role of African private sector companies in many parts of the continent.

Many governments still rely on non-African multinationals and their own state-owned enterprises, rather than creating an economic environment in which the private sector can thrive. The Democratic Republic of Congo has 105 million inhabitants and a relatively large economy, but is not represented; many of its major mining operations are controlled by foreign companies and the state-owned Gécamines is one of the largest mining companies in Africa.