Admire: to regard with respect or warm approval. This is what the consumers within Sub Saharan Africa have accorded to MTN, Safaricom, among other telecom brands. This was during the annual ranking of the most admired brands and most valuable brands in Sub Saharan Africa, where the 6th Brand Africa 100 was announced in South Africa.
Conducted in 23 countries across Africa, the ranking is based on a survey among consumers 18 years and older using a mobile survey platform to identify the most-admired brands in Africa among the representative sample.
It represents all African economic regions, collectively accounting for 75% of the population and the 74% of the GDP of Africa. The Brand Africa 100 was developed by pan-African branding and reputation advisory firm, Brand Leadership Group with support from GeoPoll, Kantar TNS, and Brand Leadership.
South African telecommunications brand MTN is the most admired African brand, as well as the leading among telecoms, with Glo/Globacom (Nigeria) and Safaricom/Mpesa (Kenya) being the only others form the continent in the top 10.
Top 10 Most Admired Telecom brands in Africa
In the financial services sector, 60% of the most-admired brands are made in Africa. Among these is GTB, which retains the number one position as the most-admired financial services brand, and Safaricom M-Pesa which retains its pole position among mobile money brands. Safaricom M-Pesa comes 9th, Airtel Money 21st, PayPal 24th, and Orange Money 25th, an indication of mobile being a key enabler for financial access within the continent.
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In the media sub-survey, DStv -the parent to GoTV, Multichoice and Supersport – is the only pan-African media brand within the Top 10 media list.
Thebe Ikalafeng, founder and chairman of Brand Africa and Brand Leadership says that African brands have an important role in helping to build the African continent.
Overall, the 2017/18 Brand Africa 100 list, which started out with over 15,500 brand mentions covering over 2,200 admired brands, illustrates a very diversified portfolio of categories and brands in Africa. Apart from MTN, other most admired brands in Africa include Nigeria’s Dangote, Uganda’s Mukwano Products, South Africa’s Shoprite, Kenya’s Tusker and Ethiopia’s Anbessa.
