In a recent report of Africa’s fastest-growing companies in 2024 by the Financial Times, OmniRetail, a Nigerian unified consumer goods distribution platform, Moniepoint, and several other Nigerian companies made the list.
This year’s list is the third edition which was compiled in conjunction with Statista, ranked companies according the their absolute growth rate, compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2022 Revenue, and 20219 revenue.
The list comes amidst a background in which many economies are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Nigeria’s B2B e-commerce startup Omniretail, which improves the inefficiencies of traditional trade, emerged as the first on the list. The company had an absolute growth rate of 66,294.88% and a compound annual growth rate of 772.39%. The startup grew its revenue by 772.39% in 2022 to $139.8 million.
Nigeria Fintech company Moniepoint occupied the fourth position with an absolute growth rate of 41,644.81% and a compound growth rate of 647.37%.
Also, Afex Commodities Exchange Limited, a Nigerian company that provides commodity brokerage services closed out the top five rankings, with an absolute growth rate of 5,733.12% and a compound annual growth rate of 287.82%.
Commenting on the ranking report of Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies in 2024, FT wrote,
“Nigeria, one of the continent’s three biggest economies, spent 2023 in an economic crisis as prices spiraled upwards and the naira went into freefall. Nevertheless, it still had the second highest number of companies in our ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing, compiled in conjunction with research company Statista. South Africa, where growth has also been lackluster, was home to the highest number. This year, our ranking has a wider geographical spread of companies than before. The big newcomer is Morocco, with 12 companies in the top 125 against just three last time”.
Of the 125 companies that made it to this year’s list, South Africa dominated with 42 companies, followed by Nigeria with 25 companies, while Kenya and Morocco had 12 companies each.
The twenty-five Nigerian companies that were listed on the ranking include; Omniretail, Moniepoint, Afex Commodities Exchange Limited, My Credit Investments Limited, Alpha Morgan Capital Managers Limited, Thrive Agric Limited, Bisedge Limited, The Seamless Company Limited, West African Soy Industries Limited, Sundry Markets Limited, Veritas Homes and Properties Limited, and Paga Group Limited.
The rest are United Capital Plc, Fidson Healthcare Ple, R.T Briscoe Plc, Tripple Gee & Company PIe, BUA Foods Plc, Black House Media Group Limited, Comercio Partners Limited, Wacot Rice Limited, John Holt Plc, Amel International Services Limited, Academy Press Plc, Cutix Plc and Transcorp Hotels Plc.
In this year’s FT ranking, Selassie, the head of the IMF’s Africa department, acknowledges that Covid-19 set economies back. He said, “I worry about the effect that the pandemic has had on poverty, particularly in the most fragile countries”.
Meanwhile, he points out that many businesses have managed to survive, and even prosper, noting that much of the private sector, particularly the private sector that’s not directly reliant on government business, has shown incredible resilience”.
Notably, the FT-Statista list revealed the type of companies that, even in hard times, have managed to grow, often by disrupting markets.