Winning the award for a record 6th time confirms the foremost African indigenous Conglomerate’s unwavering dominance of the domestic brand space.

TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA, is a qualitative, non-financial evaluation of top corporate brands in the country.  The annual top brands league table which has become like a report card, with which top corporate brands have a feel of their ranking in the market is done with a special purpose model, the Brand Strength Measurement (BSM Index).

The rating firm in a statement said that Dangote got an impressive aggregate score of 86.2 on the Brand Strength Measurement (BSM) index, reinforcing its position at the forefront. The score reflects the consistent excellence of the brand.

MTN remains a strong contender, securing a close second place with an 85 BSM index score. This year’s third and fourth positions are secured by Airtel Nigeria and Globacom, both with BSM index scores of 77.9 and 77 respectively. Interestingly, this reaffirms the prominence of telecom brands, with three out of the top four hailing from this sector. Among the Top 10 brands are Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Coca-Cola, GTCO, and First Bank, Globacom was adjudged the Most Popular Brand following the outcome of a Top of Mind (TOM) Survey, where respondents mentioned 10 brands that came to their mind or that they could easily recall. 

This year’s survey had as respondents Chief Marketing Officers and Head of Corporate Communications of major companies across the land.

TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA announcing the ratings said, “this annual top brand evaluation provides a qualitative, non-financial assessment of the value of leading corporate brands in the country. It gauges consumers’ perceptions of brands and their impact on overall brand strength, using the Brand Strength Measurement (BSM) index—a model designed to assess a brand’s ability to deliver on its promises from the consumer’s perspective.”

In today’s market, brands have woven themselves into the fabric of our daily lives, from dawn to dusk and even in every consumer choice. This phenomenon is amplified by the rise of concepts like consumer awareness, differentiation, and the dynamics of the global economy, making brands pivotal actors.

Chief Executive Officer of TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA Taiwo Oluboyede, speaking on the outcome of this year’s evaluation, likened brand to a person.  He said, “A brand is like a person with all the traits that define his/her personality to the audience. When you hear someone’s name, you are likely not just going to remember their faces or apparel, but who they really are and what they mean to you.”

“Someone may claim to be the best man in the world, and could even go as far as doing paid advertising to attract attention. However, the real description of the person to you is your experience. Perception about a person could change from like to dislike or the other way round, the same is also true for a brand. That is why promoters go the extra length consistently remain in the target audience like-list” he added.

He elaborated that the onus lies with brand owners and promoters to uphold compelling propositions and consistently deliver on promises. “It’s not just about making pledges anyway; it’s about steadfastly living up to them—a commitment that separates the top brands from the rest,” he stated.

A breakdown of the 2023 evaluation report indicated that Nigerian-owned brands continued to shine among the top 10, with 10 brands. These are Dangote, Globacom, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, GTCO, and  First Bank.

Five of the top ten brands are Banks, while three are Telecoms. Impressively, 9 of the 10 were among the top 10 last year, while 4 maintained their previous position. Airtel Nigeria made a remarkable ascent to third place. Also, six brands have consistently maintained top 10 positions for a remarkable 7 years in a row.

Overall, 26 or 52% of the 50 brands are multinational, while 24 or 48% are Nigerian brands.

Rite Foods Limited stands out as the highest gainer this year, leaping 14 places from 46th to 30th. Notably, Wema Bank makes a noteworthy debut in the annual brand ranking. Furthermore, nine brands maintained their 2022 positions, they are Dangote, MTN Nigeria, GTCO, First Bank, Multichoice, Fidelity, Toyota Nigeria, FMNPLC, and AXA Mansard.

A breakdown of the report indicated that Banking Services, as usual, had the largest entries with 12 entrants, representing 24% of the total. Access Bank topped the category. This is followed by Consumer Goods with 9 brands, that is 18%, with Dufil Prima Foods leading the charge.

The Conglomerates category has 6 brands, making up 12%, with Dangote Group on top. The Oil and gas, Beverages, and Telecom sectors each contribute 4 brands, with Oando, Coca-Cola, and MTN leading their respective categories.

The Insurance sector has 3 brands, with AIICO at the forefront. Meanwhile, the Building & Construction Services, Media, and Electronics categories had 2 brands each, featuring Julius Berger, Multichoice, and Tecno Nigeria leading their respective categories.

Automobile, Agricultural, and Aviation/Logistics sectors had 1 brand each —Toyota Nigeria, Olam International, and Air Peace.

Of note in the report also is a class called Brands to Watch, a set of 10 brands that have shown some level of vibrancy in recent times and are gaining momentum in consumer acquisition with the possibility of achieving the 50 top Brands League Table in few years. It should be noted that, while these brands have considerable mentions in the TOM survey, they were not strictly subjected to the rigorous BSM evaluation.

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In his response, the Group Chief Branding & Communications Officer, Anthony Chiejina said the report was written with malicious intent as it did not reflect the number of skilled Nigerians on site.

He said, the magnitude of the project requires specialized skilled workforce from all over the world and that while over 30,000 Nigerians were engaged among the skilled workforce, at the peak of construction in the Refinery complex, 6,400 Indians and 3,250 Chinese workers were among the skilled workforce.  

 He also said Nigerians on the project demonstrated high level of technical comeptence many hidden skills were discovered among them.

He advised the public to discountenance such malicious and twisted reports, and instead focus on the potential impact of the project on the overall economy and well-being of Nigerians as Dangote Group continues to be the leading light in employment generation.

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Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), Zouera Youssoufou has been in contact with the Management of Air Peace and the Federal Government to indicate the Foundation’s readiness to support the stranded Nigerians.

She said: “The Foundation will collaborate with the Federal Government and Air Peace in ensuring  seamless transportation of the stranded Nigerians and more importantly provide logistics and succour to the evacuees, to make them settle more comfortably when they return to Nigeria.”

The Foundation MD further stated that ADF’s understands the challenges of the Federal Government and Air Peace involved in this mission and has contacted relevant Federal Government agencies, involved in humanitarian disaster relief intervention, “…indicating our interest in collaborating with them to ensure that all Nigerians stranded in Sudan are brought back home safely.”

It would be recalled that Aliko Dangote Foundation supported the Nigerian government with logistics support for the Nigerian volunteer health workers who supported the Ebola containment efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone upon their return to the country in 2015. Also, during the recent Covid pandemic, ADF supported the return of Nigerians from India and Dubai during the outbreak of the pandemic with specially chartered flights and Covid testing and quarantining when they arrived back in Nigeria.  Since 2011, ADF has supported several thousand IDPs in Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, and Abuja with a total spending of over 25 billion naira in the provision of food, shelter, and health services. 

Meanwhile, a Joint press release from the Ministry of foreign affairs and the federal ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management, and social development revealed that the first batch of 13 buses conveying six hundred and thirty-seven (637) evacuees had arrived at the identified safe borders at Aswan, Egypt, and are undergoing necessary documentation and clearance before admission into the Egyptian territory for their eventual evacuation to Nigeria. 

Sudan has been experiencing intense clashes between the country’s military and the main paramilitary force. Hundreds of people have been killed, while thousands that are fleeing the bloody civil war are reported stranded on the Sudan-Egypt border because of visa requirements demanded by Egypt.

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Chairman of the Company, Aliko Dangote said: “The shareholders are very happy with the way we have been running their company and also in re-investing the profit into the Backward Integration Programme (BIP) for the sugar industry. We are going to play our part in ensuring that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in sugar within a very short period. We are not the only players, but we will surely play our part. We should be able to produce over 170,000 tonnes which are by far, in the history of Nigeria, the highest to be produced locally.”

The company recorded an impressive turnover of N403 billion, a 46 per cent increase over N276 billion recorded during the same period in the year before, and posted a Profit before Tax (PBT) of N82 billion.

Dangote attributed the company’s remarkable performance to the pragmatic approach the management deployed by focusing on continued cost and process optimisation, improved efficiencies in every area of operations, and service delivery to our customers.

He pledged that the management would continue to implement strategic actions to sustain the performance with the support of all stakeholders with complete adherence to the tenets of the Federal Government’s Sugar Master Plan.

Dangote said part of the success recorded by Dangote Sugar was made possible by the management’s continued implementation of the Dangote Sugar Development Master Plan with the rehabilitation and upgrade of the Dangote Sugar Refinery’s Numan operations, facilities and land development, as well as the development of the Nasarawa Sugar Company Limited, the greenfield sugar project, and Tunga in Nasarawa State.

He said: “Concerted efforts were made during the year to rise above the various challenges that came about due to the COVID–19 lockdown which affected project timelines considerably and continued to generally impact economic activities due to its spill-over effect, which also led to the lack of forex to finance most of the project deliverables.

“We however continued to surge ahead supported by the various stakeholders in the industry and government parastatals, with the resolve to ensure that the goals of the Nigeria Sugar Development Master Plan are achieved.”

The Company Chairman noted that during the year under review, the first phase of the Sugar Master Plan implementation period came to an end and that the Federal Government approved the second phase over the next 10 years. “This extension came on the back of the review of the first phase by the National Sugar Development Council and other government parastatals with cognisance of the challenges and several circumstances that were unforeseen which riddled the first phase of the programme,” he added.

Dangote stated that the board and management were, however, focused on the achievement of the goals of the strategic initiative, and thus considerable progress was recorded in the project development, despite the numerous challenges faced.

Not minding the obstacles ahead, Dangote promised that the management would continue to create sustainable value for all stakeholders through an inclusive approach to growth and development, with continuous engagement with all parties, to enable the company make a positive impact, support poverty eradication and food security, infrastructure development, empowerment for members of the immediate communities, and the society at large.

In her remarks, the Coordinator of the Pragmatic Shareholders Association, Mrs. Adebisi Bakare expressed the satisfaction of shareholders with the performance of the company, noting that despite all the encumbrances in the sugar sub-sector of the economy, the company still performed far and above the previous year.

She urged the board and the management to continue in the direction they have taken to get the company to the current winning, assuring that the management has the support of the shareholders to post even better performance in the coming years.

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The empowerment programme which afforded the youths the opportunity to be trained on domestic electrical installation, wiring and maintenance is aimed at accelerating social and economic development of host communities and in line with the United Nation Sustainable Development Goal.

In the same vein, the Cement plant commissioned a solar-powered Borehole in Abule Oke in Yewa North Local Government, Ogun State in fulfilment of its promises made to the communities during its Community Day celebration last December.

The youths were also presented with start-up tools for immediate commencement of their vocation after the training which was put in place by the Ibese Plant in partnership with Industrial Training Fund (ITF).

Addressing the beneficiaries at the closing ceremony of the programme, the Dangote Cement, Ibese Plant Director, Mr. Azad Nawabuddin, described the empowerment initiative as a demonstration of the Company’s commitment to the continued socio-economic development of the host communities in line with the Community Development Agreement signed in 2022.

According to him, the Company’s social development strategy “does not support giving people fish to eat but focuses on teaching people how to fish saying the Company was being proactive by engaging the communities members, especially the  youths  with so much energy and vigour.  “Rather we empower them to be self-sufficient and self-reliant”.

Mr. Azad reeled out past empowerment initiatives of the Plant aimed at reducing unemployment gaps in the local communities and ultimately improving the standard of living, which include training in catering and event management, tailoring and fashion design and Acutherapy, from which 275 indigent youths have so far benefitted.

He commended the beneficiaries for their determination and zeal to learn new skills to better their lives, and urged them to apply the technical and entrepreneurial knowledge garnered during the training in building sustainable businesses, while committing to continued development of their skills and expertise in line with global trend.

The Deputy Area Manager, Industrial Training Fund Abeokuta Area Office, Mrs. Funmi Coker, commended Dangote Cement Plc Ibese Plant for devoting resources to develop the capacity of the Youths in relevant trade areas to make them useful for themselves and their immediate communities. She further appreciated the Company’s consistent collaboration to achieve the Nation’s training objectives, while charging other corporate bodies to follow suit.

Mr.Dayo Ogunyinka, the Vice Chairman of the Community Joint Consultative Committee also expressed delight for the Company’s annual empowerment initiative. He enjoined the beneficiaries to see the gesture as a life-changing opportunity with the capability to take them to the pinnacle of success and ensure that the starter packs received are used for the intended purpose.

One of the beneficiaries, Ms. Elegbede Ganiyat, from Iboro host community appreciated Dangote Cement for considering it worthy to invest in the development of the youths and described her experience during the training as enriching and everlasting. She assured that the beneficiaries have been well prepared to calve a niche for themselves in the electrical services market in their locality and beyond.

Meanwhile, the Cement Company has handed over a multi-million naira solar-powered bore hole to the people of Abule-Oke, a host community at a ceremony witnessed by the Olu of Imasayi, Oba Lukman Kuoye; the Baale of Abule Oke, Chief Ramoni Akinsanya other community leaders, youths, women and other indigenes.

Speaking during the hand-over, the Plant Director, Mr. Azad Nawabuddin emphasized the essentiality of water to the survival of humans and advised the community to make good use of the borehole facility and put up a framework to ensure its security, maintenance and sustenance as their equity contribution to the project.

The Olu of Imasayi commended the Management of Dangote Cement for “being the transformer illuminating the entire Yewaland’’, while acknowledging the commitment of the Company to improving the standard of living of people in its host communities. He charged the people of Abule Oke to ensure that the borehole facility is sustained such that coming generations can benefit from the project, as only the judicious use of the facility can encourage the Company to invest more in infrastructural developments in the community.

The people of Abule Oke were full of gratitude to the Company for the provision of the water facility, as expressed by the youth leader, Mr. Rafiu Akinola who declared that the intervention was timely and value adding, especially considering the fact that it is powered by Solar thus saving the community of the cost of fueling and maintenance of generator.

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He noted that Dangote Group has been at the forefront of job creation even as its products and services have touched the lives of millions of people across the African continent and beyond.   He enjoined other corporate bodies to toe the line of Dangote in assisting the Government, through the provision of infrastructure, even if it has to be through a tax credit scheme, introduced by the Federal Government.

Welcoming participants to the special day, Group Chief Commercial Officer, Dangote Group, Rabiu Umar, disclosed that the Group is passionate about deepening the Nigerian economy through industrialisation, job creation, provision and rehabilitation of essential infrastructure, and the welfare of the citizens.  According to him, it is the desire to promote industrialisation that informs our decision to become strategic partners with all the major Chambers of Commerce across the nation. 

He said, “Our participation at all major trade fairs across Nigeria demonstrates our belief that Chambers of Commerce & Industry occupy a unique position in driving economic development through their activities. Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) occupies a unique position as the pioneering chamber and has continued to play a ‘significant role in the economic growth of Lagos and Nigeria in general.” 

Umar stated that the theme of the fair “Connecting Businesses, Creating Value” resonates with Dangote Group, as all investment decisions are focused on creating value for all stakeholders across the subsidiaries.  He said, “we have invested in several projects which are meant to create jobs and enhance rapid industrialisation of the Nigerian economy.” 

Giving an insight into the activities of the subsidiaries, he said that the activities of Dangote Cement have had a multiplier effect, providing direct and indirect employment to millions of people across Africa. He added, “Our food subsidiaries, Dangote Sugar Refinery, NASCON Allied Industries (Dangote Salt), and Dangote Rice are providing jobs through various schemes. Dangote Sugar Refinery, through its out-grower scheme, has provided jobs to thousands of farmers in the host communities. The coming of Dangote Fertiliser has to a great extent helped to change the face of agriculture in Nigeria while the Dangote Petroleum Refinery when functional will drive the development of ancillary industries which will utilize the byproducts as raw materials.”  

Dangote Sugar Refinery also unveiled its new retail sugar packs during the event. Head of Sales & Marketing, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Rilwan Olawale Yusuf speaking during the unveiling said the new packs which come in three variants, 1 kg, 500 g and 250 g will improve on-shelf brand visibility and enhance consumer preference for ‘our brand.’  According to him, the new product package will establish a clear differentiation and enhance the attractiveness of the pack.

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The award was bestowed on him by the National President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Mrs. Mfon Ekong Usoro, during an official visit by executive members of the Institute and its Women in Logistics and Transports (WILAT) branch to Dangote at the Head Office of the Dangote Group in Ikoyi, Lagos, State.

While accepting the award, Dangote, who commended the efforts of the Institute’s top officials to improve the transport sector in Nigeria, also pledged to collaborate with the CILT in the areas of training and capacity building on transport, logistics and supply chain management issues.

He received the CILT award in the company of the Group Executive Director, Special Duties and Group Chief Risk Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Dr. Nike Fajemirokun; Group Managing Director, Dangote Cement Plc, Mr. Michel Puchercos, and the Managing Director, Greenview Development/Port Operations, Mr. Akin Omole.

Members of the CILT delegation led by Mrs. Usoro included the National President Emeritus, Ibrahim Jibril; International Vice President, Dr. Usman Gidado; Founder WiLAT, Aisha Ali-Ibrahim; Vice President, East CILT, Peter Borlo; CMILT/Chairperson WILAT, Khadijat Ifelola Sheidu-Shabi; Vice President, ENL Consortium, Princess Vicky Haastrup; National Executive Director, Paul Ndibe; Director, CLTL, UNILAG, Prof. Iyiola Oni, and Chairperson, Next Generation, Jafaaru Bello.

Usoro, who presented the award to Dangote, said the delegation came to inform him about the change in baton in the Institute, and to renew the relationship between the CILT and corporate members. She noted the long relationship with the Dangote Group, which presently has 5 Fellows of the Institute; 5 Chartered members, 18 Members, and 47 affiliate Members of the CILT. The team also expressed condolence over the recent demise of the Group Vice President, Alhaji Sani Dangote.

Dangote, who welcomed the CILT team, noted the need for adequate infrastructure, transport and logistics to boost the economy. He noted that the Group can work together with the Institute in the areas of transport and logistics, with training for the customers of the Group.

Immediate past president of the CILT, Mr. Jibril, in a vote of thanks, commended Dangote for the good work being done by the group in creating wealth not only in Nigeria but in Africa. He also hailed the group for building capacity in logistics, transport and supply chain management in Nigeria.

According to him, “I have been with CILT Council for over one and a half decades and through this period I have come to realise the great work the President of the Dangote Group is doing and his supporting staff in the area of  development of capacity and skills acquisition in the logistics, transport and supply chain industry and this has gone a long way in professionalising the industry and has gone a long way in creating wealth and generating employment not only in Nigeria but the African region.

“This is a development that we have been keenly following and we are very much proud of what the Dangote Group is doing as led by the president himself. On that note, we appreciate all that he has done, we appreciate all that the Dangote Group is doing, and at the end of the day we believe that this is what Nigeria should benefit from”, he added

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Speaking at the formal launch of the Pan-African Payment & Settlement System (PAPSS), which is a centralised payment and settlement infrastructure platform for intra-African trade and commerce payments, in Accra, Ghana, on Thursday, January 13, 2022, Dangote urged Africans to close ranks, in a bid to propel the continent towards charting her own course and being the master of her destiny, to maintain her rightful position on the globe.

Dangote,  who was represented at the occasion by the Group Managing Director of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Olakunle Alake, lauded the African Union, under the auspices of the Afreximbank, for the launch of the PAPSS, which he noted was aimed at facilitating payments across the continent.

He asserted that improved trade relations would greatly enhance the speed of recovery across Africa, noting that it had the potential to boost the level of economic activities through intra-Africa trade. He also remarked that the advent of PAPSS would greatly address challenges such as: high-cost, lengthy correspondent banking relationships, delays, among many others, and therefore ease transactions among businesses across Africa.

He equally expressed optimism that PAPSS would enhance the volume of trade among countries, which were hitherto not recorded or were overlooked because of the informal approach towards these transactions. According to him, these were now captured to reflect the correct or at least close to the appropriate position of trading activities within the continent, while also boosting the level of economic activities across the continent.

Dangote noted the enormous potential and benefits of PAPSS, but nevertheless warned that such projects had their teething issues. He therefore urged regulators and participants across the continent to look beyond any such operational challenges and ensure a successful implementation of the PAPSS.

In thanking all the member countries and organisations who contributed to the success of PAPSS by playing key roles leading to the launch of the project, he invoked the words of Ghana’s first President and Prime Minister, and renowned promoter of Pan Africanism – Kwame Nkrumah, stressing that “The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater…”

Dangote thus charged African leaders and citizens to continue to promote the continent’s intrinsic greatness through improved trade relations amongst African countries.

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These were part of the revelations in the report presented at the unveiling of the top brands in Nigeria over the weekend. The annual top brands league table which has become like a report card with which top corporate brands have a feel of their ranking in the market is done with a special purpose model, the Brand Strength Measurement (BSM Index), a model that tests a brand’s ability deliver on its promise to its consumers from the consumer’s points of view. It is a qualitative, non-financial evaluation of top corporate brands in the country which is done annually.

Taiwo Oluboyede, the brand consulting firm’s CEO in his address said, without any doubt, the subject of brand and branding has become central in every corporate setting. And regardless of the sounds of the time, the brand drives and determines corporate placement, particularly at an unprecedented time like these.

We are glad once again that a Nigerian brand emerged as the Most Valuable for the year. This says a lot about our tenacity and resilience as a people and our businesses, regardless of the situations around us. Even though overall, we have more multinationals, the homegrown brands gave an impressive performance. For example, 6 of the top 10 in the league table are Nigerian, most of which have also spread to other countries across Africa and other continents of the world.

Globacom another proudly Nigerian brand emerged in the third place, followed closely by Coca-cola Nigeria who enjoys a lot of its global brand appeal.

Others in the top 10 in this annual ranking are GTBank, Airtel, Access Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank, and Dufil Prima Foods in that order.

6 brands among the top 10 have maintained top 10 positions for 6 years consecutively-they are Dangote, MTN, Globacom, FirstBank, GTBank, and Coca-Cola.
The Banking and Financial Services category had the highest number of entries among the top 10 with 4 brands. This is followed by the telecoms with 3 brands.

Airtel Nigeria recorded the highest gainer among the top 10, moving 5 places to emerge on the 6th position.

In the survey, there are 28 Multinationals, with MTN Nigeria topping them, while we have 22 Nigerian brands.

The banking and financial services category took the lead as usual with 11 brands, an equivalent of 22%, with GTBank toping the category.

This is immediately followed, expectedly by the Consumer goods with 8 brands, where Dufil Prima emerged on top of the category.

The Conglomerates and Oil & Gas categories had 5 brands each with Dangote Group and Oando Plc topping them respectively.

TELECOMS and BEVERAGES had 4 brands each with MTN and Coca-Cola topping their categories respectively.

MASS MEDIA, ELECTRONICS, and BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION SERVICES had 2 brands each with Channels TV, Transsion Holdings, and Julius Berger topping their categories respectively.

“We had to separate the INSURANCE category this year because of the increase in their number in the annual brand league table with 3 brands in the category. AIICO Insurance topped the list,” Said Oluboyede.

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During a year defined by the pandemic which brought the world to a halt, as markets having to adapt to a new reality, African brands retained their 13% share of the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa.

Despite an increase in sample size and countries, the Top 10 Most Admired Brands show little change from previous years. MTN, consistently the only African brand among the Top 10 brands overall, dropped to #11 for the first time in a decade. American sports and fitness giant, Nike retains the top spot for the fourth year in a row. MTN and Dangote retain their status as the most admired African brands recalled spontaneously and when prompted, respectively. Nigeria’s GT Bank retains its position as the most admired financial services brand in Africa.

With Covid limiting entertainment options beyond the house, while many businesses struggled, many digital businesses such as streaming services thrived. This undoubtedly explains South Africa’s DSTV, knocking off BBC from its long held position as the most admired media brand in Africa.

Top 100 brands in Africa continue to be dominated by European brands which have held their share at 41% (-1), North America (+1), Asia (-), and Africa retaining its 13% share of the most admired brands in the world. Similarly, the leading African countries that dominate the rankings largely retained their positions with Nigeria (-1) and South Africa (-) with 5 brands each, Ethiopia (+1) and Kenya (-) accounting for the13 brands among the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa.

Computer/electronics (17%)(+3), consumer (non-cyclical) (14%)(+6), luxury (8%)(-2), auto manufacturers (13%)(+3), and apparel (8%)(-) make up the top 5 categories.

The shifts in the rankings this year’s rankings are bound by a common theme – the Covid-19 pandemic. Given its impact on lives and livelihoods, this year Brand Africa survey sought to understand which brands were perceived to have been helpful during the pandemic. Predictably, given its global omini-presence during the pandemic, the WHO emerged as the #1 most admired global brand perceived to have been most helpful during the pandemic. MTN, which donated over 7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to 9 African countries, is the leading African and private sector brand at #2, in private sector list where all multinational mobile operators in Africa – Vodafone Group (#3), Orange (#4), Airtel (#6) – and media brands, Facebook (#10) and DSTV (#24) made the list of the Top 25. They were instrumental in communicating about the pandemic and in keeping people connected. Underlying the role the private sector is playing during pandemic, the list is 80% dominated by diverse private sector brands and 20% governmental and non-governmental agencies such as the Red Cross (#5), multi-lateral agencies such as WHO and Unicef (#7), government agencies such as the Center for Disease Control (#16) and USAID (#19). Unsurprisingly, the leading pharmaceutical groups, Johnson & Johnson (#12) and Astrazeneca (#25) rounded off the list. Nigeria’s Dangote (#8) is only industrial brand in the list.

Ethiopian Airways, the only African airline to have seemingly thrived during the pandemic, the first of the continent’s airlines to resume service and converting passenger planes into cargo planes to transport critical PPE’s around the world and the continent during the pandemic’s depths, spectacularly broke into the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa, the only airline, at #51.

With loconomies a central pivot during the pandemic, upstart South African brand, Bathu, muscled its way into a Top 25 at #10 among the most admired African brands list dominated by the stalwart brands, Dangote (#1), MTN (#2) and DSTV (#3), which retained their top respective rankings.

Out of all the 28 countries surveyed, only 5 (18%) have an African as the #1 most admired brand in the country.

Now in its 11th year, every year on or around Africa Day, 25 May, Brand Africa releases the results of the survey on the most admired brands in Africa.

The announcement of the pan-African list, kicks of marathon series of announcements for the day, which started with morning with a virtual event at 05h45 GMT in Uganda with the most Africa-wide, East African and Uganda’s most admired brands; which will be followed by the announcement of the most admired brands in Southern Africa, featuring Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia, then West African and Nigeria; then North African Morocco, and will close with a live announcement of the Francophone Africa and Ivory Coast list hosted by Opinion & Public at 18h00 GMT at Royal Work Club, Le Plateau in Abjidjan, Ivory Coast.

The Brand Africa 100 results will be published in the June issue African Business magazine which on sale globally from 31 May 2020 and is available online to subscribers on www.africanbusinessmagazine.com.

The Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands events are organised by IC Events, Brand Leadership and africa practice, and supported by Africa Media Agency and BCW in communication and the Africa Brand Leadership Academy as the academic partner.

Established in 2011, the Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands rankings are the most authoritative survey and analysis on brands and underlying businesses in Africa, based on a study by Geopoll across 28 countries spanning all the five economic regions and analysis and ranking by Kantar and Brand Leadership. Collectively they account for over 80% of the population and over 80% of the GDP of Africa. An analysis of the data over the past 10 years, has established that on average, only 20% of the brands admired by Africans are made in Africa.

The 2021 survey was conducted between March and April 2021 and yielded over 80,000 brand mentions and over 3,500 unique brands.

“There is no doubt the pandemic, pandemic that continues to cost lives and livelihoods, and coincided with the launch of the implementation phase of the AfCFTA which aims to accelerate intra-Africa trade from 18% to 50% in 2030, is becoming a catalyst for loconomies with nations having to look internally for sustainability. The internal shifts in the rankings in particular the African brands,  Africa can and will need to grow its own brands to meet the needs of its growing consumer market,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Brand Leadership. “African brands will continue to play a dual role of being globally competitive but most importantly of transforming the continent’s promise into a real change.”

“While mobile has always been an expedient and effective tool to provide us reach and accessibility across the continent, it became more important during the pandemic as virtually the only way to reach respondents across the continent, providing us vital and timeous results at a critical time,” said Caitlin van Niekerk, Global Client Development Manager, GeoPoll.

Karin Du Chenne, Chief Growth Officer Africa Middle East for Kantar, which has been the insight lead for Brand Africa since inception in 2010 says, “Despite the increase in the sample size and countries surveyed – and more than 80,000 in brand mentions, the survey continues to yield very consistent picture of a steadily transforming continental brand landscape and the brands that will drive the African transformation.”

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