Women are the backbone of Africa’s economy but there is a $42bn funding gap between access to men and women. Two of the key challenges are higher interest rates for women who lack collateral, due to unfair land laws and are often seen as a greater risk. Addressing these gender inequalities could have a major impact on the continent’s growth as well as the lives of men, women and children across Africa. Women are said to reinvest 90% of their earnings back into their communities, compared to 35% for men.  And, according to the United Nations Development Programme, failing to include women ..read more

As every year, South African companies dominate the rankings in our Top 250 and in the regional Southern African table. They account for 60.33% of the combined Top 250 African market capitalisation – although this is a big fall from the 67.49% recorded in our 2023 survey – and fill 31 of the 45 highest positions in the table. They also occupy all 20 places in the regional Southern African table, so we have produced two tables for the region – one with South African companies and another excluding them. Despite the continued dominance of South African companies in our Top 250 rankings, their co ..read more

The East African companies listed in our table have combined market capitalisation of $18.3bn. Kenya dominates as expected with $11.5bn, followed by Tanzania with $4.4bn and Uganda with $2.3bn. Kenyan firms now account for 2.29% of the total value of our Top 250, up from 2.09% over the past year but still lower than the 2.71% achieved in our 2022 rankings. Despite being the fastest-growing African economy – and the third fastest globally – over the past 20 years, not a single Ethiopian company makes our Top 250 or regional Top 20 tables, although the government has gradually moved towards ..read more

The microprocessor has become the world’s most critical resource. Chris Miller tells the story of how virtually everything in the modern world runs on chips: cars, mobile phones, stock markets, even healthcare and power grids all rely on the computer and microprocessors. Yet while the microprocessor is today central to the modern world, underpinning much of what consumers desire, the early days of microchip technology were driven by the demands of Cold War rocketry and weapons systems and the US government’s determination to win the space race. For example, in late 1962 the US Air Force wa ..read more

Hello Everybody, When I learnt that the AllAfrica Media Leaders Summit had decided to honour me with a Lifetime Achievement Award, I was both flabbergasted and delighted. Flabbergasted because it is usually us publishers who hand out awards to brilliant, famous personalities rather than receive them. Despite the myth of all-powerful media tycoons, much favoured in fiction, most of us work often thanklessly behind the scenes, ensuring that deadlines are met, teams kept happy and the bills are paid. Our role is to hunt out, employ and nurture Africa’s creative talent – the writers, the analy ..read more

Afif Ben Yedder, the recipient of this year’s AMLS Lifetime Achievement Award, remains a pioneering giant in the world of Pan-African publishing. With his friend and colleague Béchir Ben Yahmed, he took the then extraordinary decision to establish a Pan-African periodical at a time, circa 1960s, when the dawn of independence was just rising for most African countries. The stable of publications that emerged broke new ground in world publishing and over the decades has set the template of a host of other Africa-centred publications and media outlets that have followed. “We wanted ..read more

There is growing consensus, and not just in the Global South, that the current global financial system is no longer fit for purpose. Africa in particular faces weighty consequences because of the inadequacies of the global financial architecture, with many countries being unable to shake off the label of bearing a “high risk premium� despite years of heady economic growth. This imposes on them higher costs when they borrow, setting many nations on the continent on a path to economic crisis amid the biggest surge in global interest rates in four decades. Against this backdrop, 19 of Africa ..read more

West and Central Africa contains more countries than any other African region, yet just three are represented in both our African Top 250 and the West African Top 20: Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Nigerian companies account for 7.78% of our Top 250, down from 9.25% last year. Ghanaian companies comprise 0.44% of the value of this year’s Top 250, up from 0.34% last year, but this rise was overshadowed by Côte d’Ivoire’s increase from 1.53% to 1.81% over the same period. Dangote Cement heads up our regional West African Top 20 table with a value of $8.9bn. Although this is $1bn dow ..read more

There is growing consensus, and not just in the Global South, that the current global financial system is no longer fit for purpose. Africa in particular faces weighty consequences because of the inadequacies of the global financial architecture, with many countries being unable to shake off the label of bearing a “high risk premium� despite years of heady economic growth. This imposes on them higher costs when they borrow, setting many nations on the continent on a path to economic crisis amid the biggest surge in global interest rates in four decades. Against this backdrop, 19 of Africa ..read more

African Banker magazine has announced today the shortlist of nominees for this year’s edition of its African Banker Awards. Since its inception in 2007, the African Banker Awards has recognised the exceptional individuals and organisations driving Africa’s rapidly transforming financial services sector. The Award winners will be announced during a spectacular gala dinner ceremony on the 28th May, in Nairobi, Kenya – a part of the official programme of The Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group. The African Banker Awards is organised by IC Events. It is held under the p ..read more