The list of Kenyan brands featuring in this year’s Brand Finance Africa 150 ranking includes Safaricom, Tusker, KCB Group, Equity Group and Co-operative Bank of Kenya.
Kenya is now accountable for 4% of the overall value in the ranking, a marginal increase of 1% compared to 2020.
This year saw three Kenyan brands make their debut appearances in the ranking, including one of Kenya’s most popular beer brands, Tusker (brand value US$52 million) in the 117th spot.
“Kenya is still underrepresented in the Brand Finance Africa 150 ranking with only 7 brands making the cut, which account for just 4% of the total brand value. However, despite the pandemic impacting all brands, Kenyan financial services brands experienced some growth in brand value,” said Walter Serem, Regional Manager, East Africa-Brand Finance Africa.
He said if the current Kenyan trend continues, this sector could produce Kenya’s next pan-African brand, following in Safaricom’s footsteps – with its recent landmark acquisition of a joint license and successful launch into the Ethiopian market.
Safaricom (brand value US$716 million) has retained the title of Kenya’s most valuable brand.
Despite falling three places to 15th and recording a 26% year-on-year drop in brand value, the Kenyan telcom giant is still streaks ahead of the next Kenyan brand, Kenya Commercial Bank, which sits in 56th.
With traditional sources of revenue such as voice and SMS declining for telcos globally, Safaricom has expanded its revenue streams by acquiring the mobile money platform M-Pesa in a joint venture with Vodacom (brand value down 16% to US$1.7 billion).
However, M-Pesa did not perform as well as anticipated with Safaricom seeing a 6% decline in profit year-on-year.
The total value of M-Pesa transactions grew by 33% but Safaricom was unable to capitalise on this.
The Kenyan banking sector is in good health with three brands now featured in the ranking, including Kenya’s fastest-growing brand – Kenya Commercial Bank (brand value up 12% to US$209 million).
Equity Group saw an 8% jump in brand value to US$202 million and moved up to the 60th spot and Co-operative Bank of Kenya enters the ranking at 77th with a brand value of US$114 million.
Kenya’s banking sector saw a cumulative brand value growth of 10% year-on-year.
These brands go against global trends in the banking sector where most have lost brand value.
The three banks have all been involved in takeovers and acquisitions over the course of the year, improving their reputation and slowly expanding their footprints across Kenya and in Africa.
Africa’s top 10 most valuable brands, according to Brand Finance Africa 150 are led by MTN(1), Vodacom(2), FNB(3), Old Mutual(4), Standard Bank(5), Absa(6), SASOL(7), NEDBANK(8), Investec(9) and MultiChoice(10)-all these being South African companies.
MTN and Vodacom lead the way, with First National Bank (brand value US$1.3 billion), Old Mutual (brand value US$1.3 billion) and Standard Bank (US$1.3 billion) completing the top five.
In total, there are only 19 of the continent’s 54 countries with brand representation in the ranking.
Nigeria is South Africa’s closest competitor with 17 brands featuring, which account for 6% of the cumulative brand value in the ranking.
33 Export (down 8% to US$292 million) is Nigeria’s most valuable brand, sitting in 43rd in the overall ranking. This brand value decrease is in line with the trend seen for alcohol brands across the continent and the rest of the world with people going out and drinking less because of the pandemic.
Morocco is the third most-represented nation in the ranking, with 10 brands featuring, which account for 6% of the total brand value.
At the 13th spot is Maroc Telecom – the highest-ranked brand from outside South Africa – jumping five spots following a modest 1% rise in brand value to US$761 Million.
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