African Brands Rebound to 15% of the Most Admired Brands in Africa

Ethiopia// – Brand Africa today unveiled the results of the 16th annual Brand Africa 100 | Africa’s Best Brands rankings, the most comprehensive consumer-led survey of brands in Africa, covering 30 countries that represent more than 85% of the continent’s population and GDP.

For the 16th consecutive year, Africans rank non-African brands as the most admired brands in Africa. Yet the headline of 2026 is one of resurgence: African brands have rebounded to 15% of the Top 100, recovering from a historic low of 11% in 2025 and ahead of the 14% recorded in 2024, the sharpest single-year recovery the survey has recorded, set against a year in which the continent took centre stage globally.

For the ninth consecutive year, the five most admired brands in Africa are all foreign: Nike, Adidas, Samsung, Apple and Coca-Cola. Not a single African brand appears in the Top 10. MTN, the continent’s highest-ranked homegrown brand for over a decade, sits at #11, a one-place slip from #10 in 2025.

What makes 2026 different is the wider geopolitical frame in which the survey was conducted. South Africa hosted the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025, the first ever held on African soil, while Kenya, in May 2026, co-hosted the inaugural Africa Forward Summit with France. Set against a sharpening of US travel and tourism hostility toward several African countries, the combined effect is a continental refocus, a year in which Africa was both the host and the subject, and the four-point rebound in African brand share reads as its commercial reflection.

Recognising that 80% of Africans believe in Africa, but only 15% buy Africa, Dr Mama Keita, Deputy Executive Secretary – Programme Support, United Nations Economic

Commission for Africa (ECA who delivered the keynote address, added:

“Africa’s image is Africa’s brand. And Africa’s brand is Africa’s economy. The point gap between belief in Africa and buying African brands is not simply a branding problem — it is a development challenge. It represents lost opportunities for intra-African trade, unrealised industrialisation, forgone jobs, weakened value chains, and constrained competitiveness. It will not close through optimism alone. It will close through deliberate policy, investment in quality and innovation, stronger regional value chains, and institutions willing to work together across sectors and borders.”

The Brand Africa Hall of Fame recognises brands that have endured, transformed and defined what it means to build with and for Africa. The Class of 2026 extends the Hall of Fame across three geographies — Southern, East and North Africa — and three sectors: finance, financial inclusion and agriculture.

Standard Bank • South Africa • Financial Services • Founded 1862

Africa’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank has financed the continent’s economic story for over 160 years — from the Kimberley diamond fields to today’s pan-African corporate and investment banking. Operating across 20 countries, it is simultaneously South African, pan-African and genuinely indispensable: one of the few brands that can claim that distinction across any comparable span of time.

Transformed from a state-owned mining operator into the world’s largest producer of phosphate-based fertilisers, OCP holds over 70% of the world’s known phosphate reserves and commands a 54% global market share of phosphorus products. It works with more than one million African farmers on sustainable fertilisation — an African-headquartered brand that does not merely compete in global markets; it underpins them.

Equity Bank • Kenya • Financial Services • Founded 1984

Built on the radical proposition of financial dignity for the excluded, Equity began in a single rural room with 5,000 shillings in capital. Today it serves nearly 60% of Kenya’s banked population and has expanded across Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and the DRC. Rated AAA with a Brand Strength Index of 93.9 out of 100, it is proof that a brand built to serve the excluded can become a continental institution.

Now in its 16th year, Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands is the continent’s most comprehensive and credible barometer of brand performance and consumer admiration. The study is aligned with ISO 20252 standards and independently conducted by globally respected research firms. For more than a decade the research has been led by GeoPoll, the world’s leading mobile-first research partner, supported by leading local and regional partners including Integrate (Morocco) and Gopinion (Algeria). The 2026 study spans 30 African countries representing over 85% of Africa’s population and GDP, conducted in the eight major languages spoken across the continent’s five economic regions. The study is unsponsored and brand-neutral, ensuring no commercial influence. Category listings are drawn from the spontaneous (unaided) Top 100 rankings. Where a prompted (aided) category ranking exists — as in Media, Financial Services and African Brands — a weighted average of the spontaneous and prompted results is used to determine the top brand in that category.

The full results and analysis are published in the June issue of African Business, the continent’s leading business magazine since 1966.

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