Safaricom retains position as most valuable brand in Kenya, E. Africa

Safaricom headquarters in Nairobi. According to a new report by Brand Finance, Safaricom maintained its status as the most valuable brand in Kenya and the East African region. PHOTO | FILE | NMG

By JAMES ANYANZWA

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Mobile telephony operator Safaricom has maintained its status as the

most valuable brand in Kenya and the East African region valued at Ksh87 billion ($646.12 million), according to a new report by Brand Finance.

It is followed by lenders Equity Bank and KCB in the second and third positions respectively.

According to the report titled 'Kenya 25 (2023)', released last week, Safaricom has shown resilience during difficult operating conditions including high inflation, a volatile global geopolitical environment, and disrupted supply chains over the past year.

Other brands in the top 10 positions by value are M-Pesa, Co-operative Bank, Kenya Power, NCBA, I&M, Tusker and Kenya Airways.

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NMG valuable media brand

Nation Media Group (NMG) is the only valuable brand in the media industry to make it to Kenya’s top 25 valuable brands.

NMG is in position 23, with Centum and Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) at 24 and 25 respectively.

Kenya’s top brands have demonstrated considerable resilience over the past year, clearly shown by the brand value growth achieved by all the top-five most valuable brands in the ranking,” Brand Finance East Africa Regional Director Walter Serem said.

“This is all-the-more impressive considering the difficult operating conditions that Kenyan brands have faced over the past few years,” he added.

The banking sector was the most valuable accounting for seven of the brands in the ranking, with a combined value of Ksh161.6 billion ($1.2 billion). This was 49 percent of the total brand value in the ranking and was up 31 percent year-on-year, despite a challenging economic environment.

Read: KCB's 2022 post-tax profit jumps to 19.5pc

Crown Paints Kenya is the fastest growing brand, up 70 percent to Ksh2.1 billion ($15.6 million).

Globally, Amazon reclaims spot as world’s most valuable brand amongst the top 500 brands, followed by Apple and Google respectively. Amazon retook top spot despite brand value falling 15 percent this year to $299.3 billion.

Apple has fallen to be the world’s second most valuable brand with brand value falling 16 percent to $297.5 billion. Google retains its position as the world’s third most valuable brand.