GCB, Only Indigenous Ghanaian Company To Make Africa's Top 250 List

GCB Bank Limited has been named by the African Business Magazine among the continent’s top 250 companies.

GCB Bank which is the only indigenous company out of three Ghanaian companies to have made the list, claimed the 243rd position on the continent with a market capitalisation of US$205million.

The listing follows an extensive companies survey which highlights the overall carnage in African share valuations over the last year. As a standard criterion, the data relates to only listed companies and as such, companies with dual listings on African exchanges were excluded. The report was released in May 2020 and is based on analysis of data gathered ending April 2020.

Overall, South Africa came top with 22 entries in the top 30 and a total of 100 entries in the top 250. Egypt placed second with 41 entries in general, while Morocco was third with 30 entries. Nigeria made two entries into the top 30 and 19 in total, which is the highest by a West African country.

Discussing the impact of the report, the Chief Executive Officer of African Growth Partners Limited, Tom Minney, explained that “as African leaders slammed the brakes on economic activities and put their countries or cities into lockdown to block the spread of the coronavirus, businesses and jobs were collapsing into intensive care and could be among the biggest casualties of the health crisis.”

He also revealed that the total value for all 250 firms on the list this year is US$597.7billion representing a 20 per cent decline from last year’s total of US$748.2-billion.

He, however, maintained that it is rather premature to say what damage the pandemic will cause to companies’ future profits – a key basis on which investors value securities and set the market

capitalisation. Nonetheless, an early indicator of the cutback scale in Africa is the number of lost jobs in the wake of the current pandemic and its consequences.