Safaricom Ranked Tenth Most Valuable Firm in Africa

Kenya’s largest Telco Company Safaricom PLC has been ranked as the tenth most valuable firm in Africa according to a report by a South African-based firm.

In the rankings mostly dominated by South African firms, Safaricom climbed up from position fourteen last year to ten this year making it the most valuable firm in Kenya.

Safaricom and Morocco’s telco giant Maroc Telco were the only firms outside South Africa to appear in the top ten. The top seven firms were all from South Africa proving that the country still dominates the region.

Safaricom is also joined by three other Kenyan firms that appeared in the top 100 including East African Breweries Limited, Equity Bank and Kenya Commercial Bank Group. Equity was ranked at position 82 while EABL and KCB were ranked at positions 90 and 92 respectively.

The four Kenyan firms in the top 100 are also the best in Kenya accounting for more than 80 percent of firms’ valuation at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

At the top of the list was South Africa’s technology firm Prospus which has a market value of 12.7 trillion shillings, which is way higher than Kenya’s best Safaricom valued at 1.06 trillion shillings.

The report, however, revealed East Africa as the most attractive investment destination in the region based on capital gains.

“Some of Africa’s most attractive investment destinations are found in the East. But this did not stop the region’s share of the Top 250 ranking falling from 21 companies totaling 26.3billion dollars (four percent of total market cap) last year to 17 entries totaling 20.2billion dollars (3.4 percent of the total) this year,” read part of the report.

The report, however, states that South Africa’s share of the Top 250 Company ranking continues to slip back because other African markets have been growing more strongly – at least before the crisis hit. South Africa now has 100 companies on the list, down from 109 in 2019.

Kenyan Firms also dominated the East African region with only two Tanzanian firms appearing in the top 100 and Ugandan firms missing out. Tanzania had Tanzania Breweries Limited at position 75 and Vodacom Tanzania at 98.