Africa’s fastest growing companies 2023: A look at the top 100 companies

• FT/Statista 2023 annual ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing companies highlights sectors including fintech, renewable energy, healthcare, commodities, and agriculture.
• COVID-19 accelerated the move online, with companies providing digital services in finance, payments, trade facilitation, and healthcare all making headway.
• The list was compiled with Statista, ranking companies by their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue between 2018 and 2021.

The recent annual ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing companies by the Financial Times and Statista for 2023 reveals that companies in various sectors were able to develop their businesses even as the world shut down due to the pandemic. The ranking, now in its second year, shows that sectors such as fintech, renewable energy, healthcare, commodities, and agriculture were able to grow their businesses while much of the world was grappling with the pandemic’s impact.

The report highlights that COVID-19 seems to have accelerated the move online, with companies providing digital services in finance, payments, trade facilitation, and healthcare all making headway. It also notes that Silicon Valley investors, as well as those in Asia and Europe, have discovered the potential in the African start-up scene, particularly in the tech hubs of Lagos, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Cairo.

According to San Francisco-based tech and digital investment platform Partech, African tech start-ups raised $5.2bn in 2021, three times more than the previous year, indicating the growing interest and investment in the African start-up ecosystem. The report also shows that African companies are gaining attention from international investors, leading to increased valuations.

The top two fastest-growing companies in Africa are from Nigeria. Afex Commodities Exchange, based in Abuja, offers brokerage and trade finance services for commodities such as maize, sorghum, cocoa, and rice, and recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over three years of more than 500 per cent, putting it in first place. Lagos-based Moniepoint, which provides banking services for small businesses, rates second, and was an early funder of venture capital group Novastar.

Kenya’s Wasoko, which headed the list the previous year, comes in third place. The e-commerce company helps small traders access inventory through more efficient supply chains in seven African countries.

Start-ups dominate the list, but more established companies in metals and mining, telecoms, and construction also make the top 100. The fintech, IT, and software sectors are important, but a noticeable feature of the top 100 is the sheer variety of corporate activity. The fastest-growing companies include a Namibian winery, a Kenyan fish farm, a South African company that conducts remote hearing tests, and renewable energy companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone.

It is worth noting that many fast-growing companies are privately held and do not publicly disclose detailed financial data, making this ranking an exercise in approximation. The screening process, which requires senior executives to sign off on the figures submitted by their companies, adds credibility to the ranking, which offers a helpful guide to the companies and sectors that are managing to do business in a complex and fast-changing environment.

This year’s ranking reflects a time of significant changes and opportunities for African businesses. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to digitalisation, and companies providing digital services in finance, payments, trade facilitation, and healthcare have made remarkable progress.