The popular annual Brand Africa 100 Awards are back, bigger and better this year and are scheduled to be held on July 11th, 2023, at Golden Tulip Canaan Hotel, Kampala.

The Brand Africa Awards aim at recognizing, appreciating and awarding the best 100 companies across Africa, in a bid to acknowledge their endless efforts at maintaining the quality of their brands.

The best brands are given awards based on their performance in research that is conducted across Africa. The Brand Africa research for 2023/24 took place between February and April, covering 32 countries across all economic regions in the continent.

The 2023/24 research was conducted by Brand Africa partners, Geopoll, who covered Sub-Saharan Africa, Analysis, a Kantar affiliate in Mauritius covered the Sub-Sahara Islands, and Morocco’s Integrate, an affiliate of Kantar, who covered North Africa. Kantar and Brand Leadership produced the rankings, while the Brand Africa Scientific Committee convened to review, analyse and validate the results.

“It is concerning that despite the momentum in operationalising the AfCFTA, rising internal pride in the continent albeit against global economic challenges, that African consumers have reverted to their trusted, mostly non-Africa brands, rather than give African brands a chance,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, the founder and chairman of Brand Africa.

“Nonetheless, this is the state of brands in Africa, and an urgent need to build trust in Made in African brands”, he adds.

Bernard Okasi, the Director of Research, GeoPoll, which has been the lead data collection partner since 2015, notes that; “With an ever-increasing number of countries, greater sample size, and the growth of mobile across the continent, more than ever, using mobile continues to prove to be an effective tool to reach and access respondents across the continent.”

Karin Du Chenne, the Chief Growth Officer of Africa Middle East for Kantar, which has been the insight lead for Brand Africa since its inception in 2010 says that;
“Despite the increased countries and sample sizes which have invariably grown the volumes of brands analysed, the survey continues to yield a very consistent picture of the leading brands in the continent, albeit not yet to Africa’s advantage.”

Joseph Kanyamunyu, the National Chairman of Brand Africa Uganda, says; “This is a great innovation that is aimed at stirring brand consciousness among company owners, and a constant reminder to them to always improve their products and services because consumers are now their watchdogs.

He adds; “Unlike back in the day when the research was so mechanical and involved moving from one consumer to another to get their opinion about a certain brand, nowadays, with the advent of technology, consumers from around the continent can easily point out a brand that doesn’t perform or conform to their standards.”

As a non-profit initiative and to ensure the objectivity and independence of the rankings, the Brand Africa 100| Africa’s Best Brands research to determine the most admired top-of-mind brands in Africa are not funded by any brand.

For the 10th consecutive year, the full results, including the Top 100, category rankings and comprehensive analysis will be published in the July issue of African Business magazine out in June and Top 100 rankings in www.brand.africa on 1 July 2023.

The results from the research indicate that African brands slipped to 14% of the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa as non-African brands entrench their position in the continent as follows

• Nike retains its #1 ranking for the 5th consecutive year in a relatively unchanged Top 10 ranking of the most admired brands in Africa.

• Unicef is the #1 NGO, Coca-Cola the #1 non-African brand and MTN the #1 African brand recognized for doing good for society.

• MTN and Dangote remain the most admired African brands.

• Standard Bank surges to the #1 most admired financial services brand.

• DSTV retains its ranking as the most admired media brand.

Note:
As a non-profit initiative and to ensure the objectivity and independence of the rankings, the Brand Africa 100 | Africa’s Best Brands research to determine the most admired top-of-mind brands in Africa are not funded by any brand.