Dangote Cement has been knocked off the top of our table of the Top 20 companies in West Africa after three consecutive years in which its value has fallen, from a peak of 11.2bn in 2022 to 9bn last year and now 5.3bn. BUA Foods too has seen a decline, from 5.2bn in 2024 to 4.9bn in this year's rankings, as the devaluation of the naira affects Nigerian share prices when quoted in US dollars. Both companies have been leapfrogged by Airtel Africa, up from 5bn to 7.8bn. Although listed in Nigeria, its wider geographical growth has more than compensated for the falling value of the naira.
It has been a strong year overall for Ivorian companies, with four entries in our table in 2024. There is just a single Ghanaian company in our regional table, Scancom, which has enjoyed a big rise in value from 1.6bn to 2.7bn in just 12 months. The lack of Ghanaian entrants reflects the wide malaise in that country's economy, which has recorded modest growth after defaulting on its debts and undergoing a well-publicised debt restructuring
Despite the relatively low combined market capitalisation of Africa's 250 biggest listed companies, the value of companies listed on the regional West African Bourse Rgionale des Valeurs Mobilires BRVM, based in Cte d'Ivoire, closed 2024 at a record CFA20.6 trillion francs 36bn, up from CFA18.3bn one year earlier. The value of total transactions also increased from CFA396bn to CFA462bn over the year, as the BRVM all-share index covering all 47 listed companies, including Sonatel and Orange, increased by 28.9 over the year to 276 points.
Nigeria's banks, which dominate the regional West African table, have been greatly affected by the need to recapitalise naira depreciation over the past decade has reduced their dollar-denominated capital, while the economy has experienced a string of crises. The Central Bank of Nigeria CBN lifted its minimum capital requirements to N500bn 310m for those with an international licence and N25bn 16m for nationally licensed banks. Banks must reach these levels by the end of March 2026 by injecting additional equity, opting for a lower tier banking licence, or consolidation.
Previous CBN intervention has triggered intense consolidation, most recently in 2005, but the pool of competitors is already much smaller than on the last occasion, with ten banks holding about 90 of the Nigerian banking system's assets. It remains to be seen whether the recapitalisation process creates a handful of larger banks that may once again trouble the highest rankings in our 2026 table.