Miners lead strong recovery in Africa’s Top 250 companies

After half a decade of depressed prices, the value of Africa’s biggest listed companies has recovered strongly this year, partly but not only because of booming demand for mining commodities. The energy transition and the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution have driven demand for critical minerals, such as copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium, nickel and rare earths. Separately gold, considered a safe haven in times of uncertainty, has shot up over the last three years.

The banking and construction sectors have also enjoyed strong growth, as investors come to view African stocks as undervalued and so a source of better growth opportunities than are available in Western markets. Market reforms, banking recapitalisation and bourse technological improvements have also attracted capital.

The combined market capitalisation of Africa’s 250 biggest firms peaked at $948bn in 2015, before falling to $598bn at the height of the Covid-19 crisis in March 2020. There was a partial recovery in 2021 and 2022, before a big slump to $503bn in 2024. Now, however, last year’s $595bn has been followed by a 34% increase to $795bn.

Gold glittered

Last year’s sixth-ranked listed company, South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti, now takes top spot, more than doubling its market capitalisation to just under $50bn. AngloGold Ashanti announced a huge increase in headline earnings from $954m in 2024 to $2.7bn last year, on the back of higher gold prices and a 16% increase in production to 3.1m ounces. Most of the higher output came from its 50% stake in the Sukari gold mine in Egypt. Elsewhere in Africa, it also operates in Ghana, Tanzania, Guinea and Democratic Republic of Congo, and has identified 4.9m ounces of reserves on its Arthur Gold Project in Nevada, in the United States.

Last year’s fourth-placed company, South Africa’s Gold Fields, also massively increased its market capitalisation from $19.7bn to $39.8bn over the past 12 months. Gold Fields announced a big increase in profits from $1.25bn in 2024 to $3.57bn last year on the back of an 18% rise in annual gold production to 2.4m ounces and a 45% rise in the average gold price. The price of gold increased from almost exactly $3,000 an ounce at the end of March 2025, when our 2025 survey figures were taken, to $4,400 one year later. A fifth of its output, 475,000 ounces, came from its Tarkwa mine in Ghana. The Ghanaian government more than doubled gold royalties in response to the high prices, prompting Gold Fields CEO Mike Fraser to say in February: “While we understand the deep social needs in-country, we are trying to be clear that governments, and not just in Ghana, should be really measured about not creating structural, uncompetitive situations.” Ghana produced a record 6m ounces in 2025, including 2.9m ounces from large producers and 3.1m ounces from artisanal and small-scale mining.

Tech and media conglomerate Naspers, which has been Africa’s largest company for many years, falls to third in our rankings with a slight decline in value to $39bn. Its holdings are slightly less complicated following restructuring in 2023. It now holds a 57% controlling stake in Amsterdam-listed international internet group Prosus, which in turn owns a 26% stake in Chinese tech giant Tencent, as well as food delivery and payments companies. This global reach reduces Naspers’ reliance on the South African economy and Prosus continues to perform well, reporting a 22% rise in six-month revenue in November to $3.6bn.

The three South African banks that make up the rest of our top six have all enjoyed a positive year, with increases of $7.7bn, $6.3bn and $6.3bn respectively for Standard Bank, FirstRand and Capitec Bank. South African companies fill all of the top 10 positions, with the exception of Attijariwafa Bank in tenth position, down from seventh last year, with its value little changed at $15.7bn.

Miners lead the way

Other mining companies to have benefited from the ongoing commodity boom include Anglo American Platinum, now known as Valterra Platinum following its de-merger from parent company Anglo American in May 2025. It is the world’s biggest primary producer of platinum and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), with a secondary listing in London. Its value has increased from $10.6bn in our 2025 survey to $21.7bn this year. Anglo American itself is now focusing on copper and iron ore production, selling its Brazilian nickel mines and coking coal assets in Australia, although it retains a 19% stake in Valterra.

Impala Platinum has moved up eight places to twelfth in this year’s table, with its market capitalisation more than doubling to $12.6bn. Platinum prices have also more than doubled since the start of 2025, reaching $2,700 an ounce in early 2026 as a result of limited supply from South Africa, which accounts for at least 70% of global output. Impala’s headline earnings reached 9.3bn rand ($554m) in the second half of 2025, up from just 1.9bn rand in the same period in 2025. The company is focusing on extending the life of its existing mines rather than starting new projects. However, in March CEO Nico Muller said that the growing use of electric vehicles posed a big threat to platinum miners, as they do not need catalytic converters, which are one of the main uses for the precious metal.

The mining sector more generally has enjoyed a strong year with precious metals and other metals and minerals companies between them accounting for 17.79% of the value of the combined Top 250, up from 14.36% last year. Major and regional banks take another 26.42% slice, up slightly on 2024’s 25.68%. Telecoms companies are the other big segment with 11.17% this year, with internet software and services companies accounting for 5.19% and construction materials 3.67%.

The agricultural commodities and milling sector takes just 2.34%, a small figure given that the agriculture sector is still by far the biggest source of employment on the continent. Similarly, all levels of the oil industry are very poorly represented, highlighting the dominance of foreign companies and those owned by African states in the sector.

Nigerian recovery

Perhaps the most impressive rise in market value this year is the jump from $3.4bn to $11.5bn recorded by telecoms firm MTN Nigeria, which moves up 30 places to 14th. The regulator’s decision to approve a 50% rise in tariffs, a 74.5% increase in data volumes and MTN’s Nigeria’s securing of 53m active data users turned a loss of 515bn naira ($374m) in 2024 into a 1.1 trillion naira ($799m) profit last year. Buying infrastructure operator IHS Towers made MTN Nigeria the biggest listed company in Nigeria.

Another operator in the telecoms sector, Airtel, is dual listed in the UK and Nigeria. It comes in at number 11 with a market cap of $12.7bn. MTN Group comes in at 8th with a market cap of $21bn.

MTN Nigeria is closely followed by the country’s two big construction companies, Dangote Cement ($9.9bn) and Bua Cement ($8bn), up $4.6bn and $6.1bn respectively. Indeed, Bua Cement’s share price gained 50% in the first ten weeks of 2026 alone, following a 92% increase across 2025. This continues a period of rapid growth for the company, with revenues rising from 257bn naira ($187m) in 2021 to 1.18 trillion naira last year. Bua Cement resumed exports to Burkina Faso and Niger last year following political and security instability in the Sahel and added 500 bulk cement tankers to its fleet, as it ramps up production to an expected 20m tons a year later this year. The attractiveness of Nigerian shares more widely has been boosted by the country’s greater currency stability.

Billionaire Aliko Dangote, meanwhile, has announced plans to list approximately 10% of the Dangote Oil Refinery in a $40bn multi-exchange initial public offering (IPO).

South African companies still dominant

South African companies account for a massive 58.31% of the table’s market capitalisation, although this is a slight fall from last year’s 60.16% with the rest of Southern Africa contributing just another 4.99%. North Africa is the next most capitalised region with 18.19%, a fall from 22.04% last year. Moroccan companies account for 11.82% of this year’s market cap and their Egyptian counterparts account for 11.82%.

West Africa holds a 14.21% share of the total table value, up from 9.49% last year. This year’s figure includes 10.32% from Nigeria alone, while East Africa contributes just 4.3%, surprising given the strong economic growth achieved by that region over the past decade, but still a rise on the 3.5% share the region recorded last year. As a result, East and West African companies are making progress against their generally bigger rivals in South Africa and North Africa.

As ever, Central Africa lacks a single representative in our tables. The region contains 14.3% of the continent’s population and so would include 36 companies in our Top 250 if its corporate strength matched the size of its population. Its total absence is partly the result of the domination of most Central African economies by foreign companies operating in the mining, oil, gas and other natural resources sectors.

New entrants

We have 24 companies listed that were not ranked anywhere in the Top 250 last year. Although East Africa is currently enjoying the strongest economic growth of any region on the continent, this is not reflected in the composition of these new entrants, with eleven of them listed in West Africa and just two in East Africa. North Africa and Southern Africa contribute another six and five respectively.

Johannesburg-listed Channel VAS Investments is the highest-placed of the new entries, with its $1.4bn market capitalisation – enough to secure 112th position. Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) is ranked 126th with $1.3bn. KPC has only been listed on a stock exchange since 9 March 2026, when the Kenyan government sold off a 65% stake  via an IPO in which the state-owned Uganda National Oil Company took a 20% stake.

These new entrants have helped ensure that the total growth in market values is shared across the Top 250 rather than being concentrated among the very biggest companies on the continent. The threshold for inclusion in our rankings has substantially increased over the past year. Egypt’s SODIC needed $466m to secure 250th place in this year’s rankings, in comparison with the $334m required by Zambia National Commercial Bank in our 2025 survey.