Kenya’s Telco giant, Safaricom with a market capitalization of $ 10 Billion, has climbed the rankings of Africa’s top 250 companies this year from position 14 to 10 according to an annual survey by African Business Magazine.

South Africa dominates Africa’s rankings with 9 firms on the top list. It is followed on the top 250 list by Egypt and Morocco, ranked second and third respectively after South Africa.

The top company in Africa is Prosus, a tech firm with a market capitalization of $ 119,141 Million followed by Naspers, a media firm, Financiere Richemo, a dealer in luxury goods, Anglo American in the metals and mining industry with Anglo American platimum, Firstrand, Vodacom Group and Standard Group closing in at position 9 then Kenya’s Safaricom coming in at position 10 in Africa.

EAST AFRICA

With a net income of $598 Million, Safaricom remains the most profitable firm in East Africa. It is followed by Tanzania Breweries in position 75 in Africa, with Equity Holdings (Net income of $211 Million) 3rd in East Africa and ranked at position 82 in Africa.

East Africa Breweries is 4th in East Africa, KCB Group at 5th position, Vodacom Tanzania at 6th position, Tanzania Cigarette at 7th position, Co-operative Bank of Kenya at 8th position, Standard Chartered Bank at 9th position and NMB Bank closing up the list of top 10 companies in East Africa.

Other firms on the top 20 list in East Africa include I&M Bank followed by BAT (Uganda), BAT (Kenya), Stanbic (Uganda), KenGen, Diamond Trust Bank, NCBA, Jubilee Holdings, Tanzania Portland Cement and Britam Holdings in the insurance industry bring up the rear of top 20 firms in East Africa.

Despite Safaricom’s growing dominance, Kenya lost three entries to list 11 companies and their combined market capitalisation was down from $21bn to $16bn.

While some of Africa’s most attractive investment destinations are found in East Africa, this did not stop the region’s share of the Top 250 ranking falling from 21 companies totalling $26.3bn (4% of total market cap) last year to 17 entries totalling $20.2bn (3.4% of the total) this year.