Dangote, MTN Voted Africa’s Best Brands In 2020

BUEA, Cameroon– The Dangote Group has emerged for the third time in a row, as the most admired African brand.

The Dangote Group emerged alongside telecommunication giant, MTN, in a survey of 100 Africa best brands announced in a novel global virtual event that incorporated the market openings of Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria.

In the 2020 survey conducted between February and April yielding over 15,000 brand mentions and over 2,000 unique brands, the duo emerged as Africa’s favourites.
A press release by the APO Group also revealed that GT Bank returned to the top spot in financial services, while the United Kingdom’s BBC retained its media category, ranking as the most admired media brand in separate category sub-surveys of the most admired financial services and media brands in Africa.
“Established 10 years ago, to coincide with the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the world’s biggest single sporting event, the Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands survey and rankings have established themselves as the most authoritative survey, analysis, and metric of brands in Africa,” APO Group stated in their release.
The release quotes Thebe Ikalafeng, who via an online interactive session said: “African brands have an important role in helping to build the image, competitiveness and transforming the continent’s promise into a real change. It’ is concerning that in the 10 years since the triumphant of FIFA World Cup in South Africa which globally highlighted the promise and capability of Africa, and despite the vibrant entrepreneurial environment, Africa is not creating more competitive brands to meet the needs of its growing consumer market.”
The survey, through which Dangote and MTN emerged as Africa’s favourites, is a consumer-led survey, which seeks to establish brand preferences across Africa. The survey is conducted among a representative sample of respondents 18 years and older, in 27 countries, which collectively represent 50 per cent of the continent, covering all economic regions and accounting for an estimated 80 per cent of the population and the GDP of Africa.

It was also revealed that of the “top 100 brands in 2010/11, only half still appear in this year’s list due to mergers, acquisitions and the obsolescence of many brands. The most prominent changes are in the technology category with the demise of Blackberry (#32 in 2010/11), the consolidation of Vodafone (#54 in 2010/11 and now #13 in 2020) which acquired Vodacom in 2008 and re-branded in 2011, Etisalat (#40 in 2010/11) re-branding to 9 Mobile in 2017 and Motorola (#39) being acquired by Lenovo in 2014.

A Chinese brand, Tecno, has raced up the ranking from #33 to #5 in the rankings – a dominant performance for one of China’s premier global brands that are not even sold in China.”

Reacting on behalf of the Dangote Group, the Group Chief Corporate Communication Officer, Anthony Chiejina, said the management was not unexpected in the ranking because the company has a long-standing reputation for quality, relevance compliance, and social stewardship.
“We fervently believe that only Africans can develop Africa, and this gives us stronger sense of relevance in all the countries where we have our operations. We are touching lives by providing their basic needs and empowering Africans more than ever before to creating jobs, reducing capital flight, helping governments conserve foreign exchange drain by supporting different industrial infrastructural projects of African government.”
Chiejina went further to state that Dangote Cement has been producing high quality and affordable cement, reducing poverty, engaging in unprecedented philanthropy, and above all respecting the laws of the land where it operates. “All these are our credo and we do not compromise it, it is our way. And the ranking is just an acknowledgment of all these by our stakeholders, We keep our brand promise and stay authentic,” he stated.