MTN is Africa’s top brand, with a value of more than $5,4-billion – the only African brand valued at more than $1-billion.

This is according to a survey of Africa’s most valuable and admired brands carried out by African Media Agency (AMA)/African Business magazine in partnership with Brand Africa, Brand Finance Africa and TNS.

The 2014 Brand Africa 100 ranking is dominated by electronics (17%), beverages (14%), auto manufacturers (14%), apparel (12%) and telecommunications (10%), pan-African.
Apple, at $105-billion replaced Samsung as the most valuable non-African brand, while Coca Cola retained its position as the most admired non-African brand in Africa. Coca-Cola toppled MTN as the overall most admired brand in Africa.

Non-African brands have continued to set the pace, commanding 77 of the 100 entries in the most admired brands and 99% of the most valuable brands ranking. While African brands have retained a similar number of brands among the most admired (23) and African brands have not lost any value year to year ($11-billion), their brands have not gained any market share globally and their worth has declined in relative terms (from 2% of total value in 2013 to only 1%).

South Africa, with 11 of the 23 African brands, remains the most dominant branding nation, accounting for 91% of the value of the brands. Kenya, at 5%, and Nigeria, at 3%, round off the top three, which make up 99% of the value of African brands.

The most admired regional brands are MTN (Southern Africa), Glo (West Africa), Tusker (East Africa) and Marsavco (Central Africa). The most valuable regional brands are MTN (Southern Africa), Dangote (West Africa), Safaricom (East Africa) and Marsavco (Central Africa).

The most admired African nations mentioned spontaneously by Africans were Nigeria (West Africa), Kenya (East Africa) and South Africa (Southern Africa).

The 2014 Brand Africa 100 is based on a survey among a representative sample of eight countries, covering the major sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regions to establish the base top 100 most admired brands.

These countries, Ghana and Nigeria (West Africa); Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (East Africa); DRC (Central Africa) and Mozambique and South Africa (Southern Africa). Collectively, these countries represent 51% (477-million) of SSA population and 67% ($1,065-trillion) of Africa’s GDP. Their countries’ brands are also often the dominant brands with a dominant influence and consumer base within their regions.