Brand Africa on Monday said mobile telecommunications group MTN and industrial conglomerate Dangote took the top spots as the most admired home-grown brands in Africa, while American sports apparel and equipment company Nike ranked first overall for the third year in a row.
The rankings – Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands – were announced in a novel global virtual event that incorporated the market openings of Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria. Established 10 years ago to coincide with the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted for the first time on the continent by South Africa, the survey ranks the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa.
This year’s edition shows that African companies only occupied 13 spots of the 100 entries in the 2020 survey, 7 less than last year. “It’s concerning that in the 10 years since the triumphant FIFA World Cup in South Africa which globally highlighted the promise and capability of Africa, and despite the vibrant entrepreneurial environment, Africa is not creating more competitive brands to meet the needs of its growing consumer market,” said Brand Africa founder Thebe Ikalafeng, who is also chairman of advisory firm Brand Leadership.
More so, only half of the top 100 brands in 2010/11 still appear in this year’s list due to mergers, acquisitions, and the obsolescence of many brands, the report shows. The most prominent changes are in the technology category with the demise Blackberry, the consolidation of Vodafone which acquired Vodacom in 2008 and rebranded in 2011, Etisalat rebranding to 9mobile in 2017 and Motorola being acquired by Lenovo in 2014. Meanwhile, Chinese brand Tecno has raced up the ranking from 33 to 5.
The United Kingdom’s BBC retained its media category ranking as the most admired media brand while Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank returned to the top spot in financial services. In the payments space, this year’s rankings saw a strong performance from PayPal, Western Union, and Visa, as digitization and digital-led economies accelerate more acutely because of the COVID-19 pandemic which has necessitated physical distancing.
The consumer-led survey was conducted among a representative sample of respondents aged 18 years and above in 27 countries, representing 50 percent of the continent, covering all economic regions and accounting for an estimated 80 percent of the population and gross domestic product of Africa. South Africa (5), Nigeria (6), Kenya (1) and Ethiopia (1) are leading countries of origin for African brands.
The 2020 survey, carried out between February and April 2020, yielded over 15,000 brand mentions and over 2,000 unique brands. The rankings will be published in the June issue of African Business magazine.
