The inaugural FT list which was compiled with Statista, a research company, was released after months of study, public calls, intense database research, and direct interaction with over 900 public companies in the continent.

Seventy-five (75) firms were ranked among millions of African-based businesses based on their revenue compound annual growth (CAGR) between 2017 and 2020.

“It’s an honour to be ranked on the inaugural FT Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies list,” said Adedayo Amzat, group managing director, Zedcrest Group. “It is a direct reflection of the leadership team we have in place, and I couldn’t be more proud of our team. We’ve been fortunate to extend our business across different verticals of the financial sector over the past few years and we’ll continue to evaluate opportunities in other markets as part of our future growth strategy.”

He reaffirmed the company’s commitment to building inter-connected financial solutions across Africa through technological innovation while ensuring global best practices.

The ranking, according to FT, offers a view of the corporate landscape on a continent where technology, finance, and support-service companies have had to adjust to a drastically changed environment.

Nigeria was the second most represented country in the ranking, with 20 companies, behind South Africa (24) and ahead of Kenya (nine), and Egypt (six).

These are also the markets that have attracted the most venture capital and where unicorns (companies valued at $1bn+) and would-be unicorns have proliferated.

According to FT, “Many of the fastest-growing companies, especially in the fintech sector, are those seeking to tap Africa’s unbanked population or markets that have previously been underserved or ignored. The health and education sectors, for example, spurred by unmet needs and rising aspirations, are among those offering the most scope for growth.”

However, not all of the fastest-growing companies are high-tech. Zedcrest Group, for example, has operating subsidiaries that are well recognized and celebrated as industry leaders in securities markets, consumer finance, and asset management.

Its inter-dealer brokerage aim, Zedcap Partners is a leader player in the Nigerian Securities markets, winning the FMDQ’s best brokerage service award for the third year running. Zedcap has a clientele and partners lists including players in the pension industry, asset managers, commercial banks and an impressive list of foreign portfolio investors in the Nigerian financial markets.

Zedvance Finance, the consumer lending aim of Zedcrest Group is easily the most popular lending business with the working population in Nigeria. Serving over 1million salary earners in the country. Zedvance Finance is also actively developing new consumer & business loans products and BNPL solutions for the mass market.

ZIMVEST, the SEC-regulated investment platform of Zedcrest Group is bringing the best of personalised, digital investment solutions to individuals and businesses through a range of portfolios cutting through global equities, fixed income funds and ETFs. All products of Zimvest can be accessed via the Zimvest mobile app.

Zedcrest’s principal investing business is heavily focused on technology-driven business models across commerce, finance and social impact sectors (education, healthcare and agriculture) leveraging technology, global partnerships & best-in-class processes.

The company has backed more than 50 companies across the African continent over the past 36 months, including high growth companies like Leatherback, Koniku, Reliance Health, Helium Health, Utiva, Bankly, Bento, Abwaab, Indicina, TalentQL, Flyr Labs, Yoello and Zumi.

Asides from technology investments, Zedcrest is also invested in Oil & Gas upstream and midstream assets, with investments in Ingentia Energies, operator of the newly awarded Egbolom, an onshore (swamp) marginal field situated in OML 23, located in the Central Niger Delta Sedimentary Basin.

The post Zedcrest Makes Financial Times Africa’s 2022 Fastest Growing Companies List  appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The newspaper said the incidents resulted from errors involving Amazon’s own tool, known as Kiro. In one case in mid-December, AWS customers experienced a 13-hour interruption.

Engineers had allowed the tool to carry out certain system changes. It then decided to “delete and recreate the environment”, the report said, which led to the disruption.

AWS disputed that account.

In an emailed response to Reuters, a company spokesperson said the disruption was brief and blamed it on user error. “This brief event was the result of user error-specifically misconfigured access controls, not AI.”

The spokesperson added that the interruption was “an extremely limited event” affecting a single service in one of AWS’s two mainland China regions. It did not impact compute, storage, database, AI technologies, or any other AWS services, the company said.

The December incidents follow an outage in October that disrupted Amazon’s cloud operations globally. That earlier failure affected Amazon’s own services and several high-profile apps, including Reddit, Roblox and Snapchat.

AWS is the cloud division of Amazon and supports a large share of the internet’s infrastructure. Because of that reach, even short interruptions can affect millions of users and businesses.

Both Amazon Web Services outages in December have drawn attention because they involved automation tools that can act with limited human input.

Cloud providers have been expanding the use of such systems to manage complex infrastructure. At the same time, customers expect stability and clear accountability when problems occur.

Competitors including Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are also developing automated tools to manage their platforms.

AWS maintains that the December disruption resulted from misconfigured access controls, not from the coding tool acting on its own.

The post Amazon Web Services Hit by Two December Outages Linked to Internal Coding Tool appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

A Financial Times report revealed that both companies are exploring alternative ways to handle the risks associated with how their AI models were trained. Copyright owners, including authors, publishers, and media houses, have filed more than a dozen lawsuits against tech companies including OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Anthropic, accusing them of using protected works without authorisation to train their large language models.

To manage these legal threats, OpenAI has reportedly partnered with Aon, one of the world’s leading insurance firms, to secure coverage worth up to $300 million for emerging AI-related risks. However, some sources told the Financial Times that the actual figure could be lower, and regardless, it still falls far short of what would be required to cover the potential damages from ongoing lawsuits.

Kevin Kalinich, Aon’s Global Cyber Risk Head, explained that the insurance industry itself is finding it difficult to match the scale of risk caused by AI model providers. “The insurance sector broadly lacks enough capacity for (model) providers,” he said.

Because of this gap, OpenAI is reportedly considering “self-insurance”, essentially setting aside investor capital in a protected pool to absorb possible legal costs. Discussions have also surfaced about creating a “captive,” an internal insurance structure used by large firms to manage risks that the traditional market cannot handle.

Anthropic appears to be taking a similar route. According to the Financial Times, the company is using part of its own funds to cover a $1.5 billion settlement that was preliminarily approved by a California federal judge last month. 

The case was filed by a group of authors who alleged that their works were used to train Anthropic’s AI system, Claude, without consent.

The number of copyright claims is forcing AI companies—and their backers—to confront questions about financial accountability and transparency. If investor funds are being used to offset legal risks, governance issues inevitably follow: who decides how much to reserve for potential liabilities, and how are investors’ interests safeguarded?

Analysts believe these developments could change how AI startups raise and allocate capital. Investors may soon demand clearer disclosures on data sources, litigation exposure, and risk management frameworks before funding new ventures.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Copyright Office is still assessing whether training AI systems on copyrighted content amounts to infringement, while the European Union’s AI Act could compel firms to reveal their training datasets, opening another front of legal vulnerability for AI developers.

Neither OpenAI, Anthropic, nor Aon has commented on the report.

The post OpenAI, Anthropic May Use Investor Funds to Tackle Growing Copyright Lawsuits appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

These companies emerged as continental innovators, with Nigeria holding 28 spots on the list, the second-highest after South Africa’s 51.

Compiled in collaboration with Statista, the ranking assesses companies based on compound annual growth rates (CAGR) between 2020 and 2023. 

The list offers a look at private and emerging companies that are not usually in the public eye but are impacting African business dynamics.

Top of the List: Nigerian Startups Surge Ahead

Omniretail, a B2B e-commerce and embedded finance platform, led the entire ranking with an astounding compound annual growth rate of 795.9% and absolute growth of 71,818.4%. In just three years, its revenue grew from $0.28 million in 2020 to $120.15 million in 2023. 

Headquartered in Nigeria and operating in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the company has become a huge innovator in bridging the gap between manufacturers and informal retailers.

Second on the list of Africa’s fastest-growing companies is PalmPay, a digital wallet and payments platform that posted 583.6% CAGR, growing from $0.2 million in 2020 to $63.9 million in 2023. Its employee count also soared from 87 to over 1,000 during the same period, showing both financial and operational scale.

In third place was Remedial Health, a Nigerian Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics company that recorded 339.1% CAGR. The company’s revenue grew from $0.19 million to $16.3 million, with employees growing from 6 in 2020 to 300 in 2023.

Moniepoint, another Nigerian fintech firm, made the list, growing its revenue from $15 million in 2020 to $264.51 million in 2023, a 1,663.4% increase. The company now employs 1686 people, up from just 216 three years ago.

Nigeria and South Africa Dominate the List

Together, Nigeria and South Africa accounted for 79 of the 130 companies listed. While this shows the depth of entrepreneurship in the continent’s two largest economies, it also stresses how difficult it remains for startups from smaller African nations to scale regionally.

Stéphane Bacquaert, managing partner at Adenia, a private equity firm focused on Africa, noted that Africa’s fragmentation makes it difficult to operate across borders. “You deal with different currencies, different legal environments, and, despite the political efforts to try to integrate the regions, the reality is that you don’t operate the same way in Côte d’Ivoire as in Senegal,” he said. “Those are two very different markets, as are Kenya and Tanzania.”

Of the Nigerian companies that made the list, only PalmPay operates in more than three countries. Omniretail, despite its scale, is active in just two additional countries. The ranking reiterates this reality, a few markets offer the scale needed to succeed, and Nigeria tops that list.

Unsurprisingly, fintech companies took the lion’s share in the ranking, making up nearly 20% of all firms. This has been the order of the day within the African tech funding space for a while now.

British International Investment CEO Leslie Maasdorp explained, just four countries including Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa, accounted for 90% of all fintech funding on the continent in 2024.

However, even with issues like currency depreciation and rising global interest rates, Nigeria’s fintech sector is not giving in. Norfund’s Executive Vice President, Ylva Lindberg, commented, “The entrepreneurial spirit in Nigeria in particular is formidable; there’s a sense that anything is possible.”

Investment Still Fragile

Some high-profile African startups, including those previously ranked, have collapsed. Gro Intelligence, once a leading agritech and analytics firm, went bust in 2023. Even Jumia, long dubbed “Africa’s Amazon,” has scaled back operations, its share price reflecting the downturn.

Greg Schwebig, founder and CEO of Africaworks, ranked fifth, said global monetary tightening has hurt African startups. “The whole start-up funding boom happened when there was excess liquidity in the developed world and cash moved to the developing world, including Africa. Now if you can get a T-bill at 5 per cent, people think, why would I invest in Africa?”

For some, the solution can be found in resilience and localisation. Africaworks uses an asset-light model and avoids overdependence on external capital. 

Meanwhile, companies like Omniretail are directly addressing systemic challenges. “Many microenterprises don’t have access to finance or distribution in any meaningful way,” said Lindberg. 

She shared the story of a Nigerian woman who arrived at Omniretail with only a driving licence and is now CEO of her own small fleet-based business.

While the macroeconomic environment is tough, marked by inflation, debt burdens, and fluctuating currencies, the success stories on the FT-Statista list show that African companies, particularly in Nigeria, are still finding ways to thrive. 

The growth numbers speak volumes, but behind them are countless small enterprises, job opportunities, and innovations pushing the continent forward.

The full Financial Times ranking of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies will be officially published on June 5, 2025.

The post Omniretail, PalmPay, Moniepoint Top FT’s List of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

The ranking, now in its third year comes against a background in which many economies are struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. It listed 125 companies, ordered by the highest compound annual growth in revenues (CAGR) between 2019 and 2022.

The Nigerian firms are;

1. OmniRetail
2. Moniepoint Inc
3. AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited
4. Mycredit Investments Limited
5. Alpha Morgan Capital Managers Limited
6. Thrive Agric Limited
7. Bisedge Limited
8. The Seamless Company Limited
9. West African Soy Industries Limited
10. Sundry Markets Limited
11. Veritas Homes and Properties Limited
12. Paga Group Limited
13. United Capital Plc
14. Fidson Healthcare Plc
15. T Briscoe Plc
16. Tripple Gee & Company Plc
17. BUA Foods Plc
18. Black House Media Group Limited
19. Comercio Partners Limited
20. Wacot Rice Limited
21. John Holt Plc
22. Amel International Services Limited
23. Academy Press Plc
24. Cutix Plc and
25. Transcorp Hotels Plc.

“Nigeria, one of the continent’s three biggest economies, spent 2023 in economic crisis as prices spiraled upwards and the naira went into free-fall. Nevertheless, it still had the second highest number of companies in our ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing, compiled in conjunction with research company Statista.

“South Africa, where growth has also been lacklustre, was home to the highest number,” FT said in the ranking report.

Even generally more dynamic economies, such as Kenya — which, like many African countries is labouring under high public debt — struggled to get out of the low growth doldrums as inflation gnawed at disposable income and the government squeezed expenditure.

“This year, our ranking has a wider geographical spread of companies than before. The big newcomer is Morocco, with 12 companies in the top 125against just three last time,” the report added.

FT noted that Mauritian domiciled companies also did well with nine winners, against four in 2022 and South Africa had 42 companies in the list, followed by Nigeria’s 25, while Kenya tied third at 12.

“Again, it was a Nigerian company — this time Omni retail — that came top. As in previous years, the winning business is a B2B e-commerce platform that helps small retailers, kiosk owners, and market traders digitize their business.”

Through research in company databases and other public sources, Statista identified thousands of companies in Africa as potential candidates for the FT ranking.

The companies were invited to participate in the research by post and email. The project was advertised online and in print, allowing all eligible companies to register via the websites created by Statista and the Financial Times.

The application phase ran from October 9, 2023, to February 29, 2024. The submitted revenue figures had to be certified by the chief financial officer, chief executive, or an executive committee of the company.

Further findings from the ranking show that Omni retail, founded in 2019, topped the list, posting a 66,294.9 percent increase in revenue from N89.3 million in 2019 to N59.3 billion in 2022.

Monipoint Inc, a digital banking platform for businesses, was ranked second; the firm’s revenue grew by 7,979.3 percent to N148.6 million from N1.84 million.

AFEX ranked third with a 5,733.1 percent growth in revenue to N176.1 billion from N3.01 billion.

It was followed by Mycredit Investments Limited which recorded a 1,719.1 percent increase in revenue from N3.33 billion to N60.6 billion.

Alpha Morgan Capital Managers Limited’s revenue rose by 994.8 percent to N5.84 billion from N553.3 million.

The post FULL LIST: 25 Nigerian Firms Recognized by Financial Times in Report 2024 appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

Zone, becomes the first blockchain company in Africa and one of the few Nigerian Fintechs to feature on this prestigious list.

Financial Times and Statista’s Fastest Growing Companies in Africa award is an annual ranking that identifies the top performers in Africa’s private sector. It recognises companies with impressive growth and significant contribution to their respective sectors.

Following the rigorous process of reviewing entries from hundreds of companies in Africa, Zone will be one of only 100 companies and the first blockchain company in the entire continent to feature on this list.

Obi Emetarom, Co-Founder and CEO of Zone, shared his excitement about the announcement: “We are deeply honoured by this recognition from the Financial Times and Statista. The team also feels a sense of encouragement to double down on our mission to connect every monetary store of value by harnessing the power of blockchain. By fulfilling our mission, we are laying the foundation for a truly cashless world while  expanding access to financial services and fostering a more inclusive and prosperous future for the African continent.”

Olayiwola Osoba, VP of Marketing at Zone, shared his thoughts on the recognition:

Being named one of Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies by the Financial Times and Statista is quite exciting for us at Zone. This recognition is an indication of our team’s immense effort to transform Africa’s payment landscape using an innovative architecture and a superior tech stack. As we celebrate this milestone, we remain dedicated to enabling reliable, frictionless, and universally interoperable payments across Africa and beyond..”

Following the company’s successful transition from a Banking as a Service provider to a Payment Infrastructure company in November 2022 and its success in obtaining a payment switching license from the Central Bank in Nigeria, Zone has recorded impressive milestones building out its decentralised payment network and connecting various financial services providers.

With over 20 of the biggest commercial banks, Fintechs and OFIs in Africa already connected to its Layer-1blockchain network, Zone is laying the rails for a world where digital payments are frictionless, borderless and compatible with every form and store of money.

The post Financial Times Ranks Zone as Africa’s Fastest-Growing Blockchain Company appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

In the report, South Africa had the most companies followed by Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt. The companies were ranked by their absolute growth rate, compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and revenue, showing 2017 and 2020 revenues in millions.

The Nigerian companies among FT Ranking of Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies 2022 include:

1. AFEX Commodities Exchange Ltd.: AFEX is an agricultural commodities company with an absolute growth rate of 4289.8% and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 252.8% founded in 2014. The company made $31.7 million in revenue in 2020, compared to $0.8 million in 2017.     

2. Zedcrest Capital Ltd.: Founded in 2013, Zedcrest is a Financial Services company with an absolute growth rate of 1481.8% and a CAGR of 151.0%. The company had revenue of $43.5 million in 2020 compared to $3.2 million in 2017.

3. Starsight Power Utility Ltd.: Founded in 2015, Starsight is an energy-focused company which has an absolute growth rate of 1154.4% and a CAGR of 132.4%. The company made $8.9 million in revenue for the year 2020, compared to $0.8 million in 2017.

4. Kawai Technologies Ltd.: The support services company has an absolute growth rate of 535.7% and a CAGR of 85.2%. In revenues, the company made $4.9 million compared to $0.9 million in 2017.

5. West African Soy Industries Ltd.: Focusing on agricultural commodities, WASIL has an absolute growth rate of 507.7% and a CAGR of 82.5%. The company, founded in 2015, made $116.5 revenue in 2020 compared to $22.5 million in 2017.

6. Comercio Partners Ltd.: A Financial Services company founded in 2016, Comercio has an absolute growth rate of 232.4% and a CAGR of 49.2%. The company made $3.6 million revenue in 2020 compared to $1.1 million in 2017.

7. Alpha Morgan Capital Managers Ltd.: Also a Financial Services with an absolute growth rate of 196.3% and a CAGR of 43.6%, Alpha Morgan, founded in 2012, made $3.1 million revenue in 2020, compared to $1.1 million in 2017.   

8. WACOT Rice Ltd.: is an Agricultural Commodities company founded in 2014. The company has an absolute growth rate of 187.8% and CAGR of 42.2%. In 2020, WACOT made $73.1 million revenue compared to $29.8 million in 2017.  

9. Field Intelligence, Inc.: Health company with 178.7% absolute growth rate and a CAGR of 40.7%. Founded in 2015, the company made $1.7 million in 2020, compared to $0.6 million in 2017.

10. Tripple Gee & Co. Plc: Having been in operation since 1980, Tripple Gee is a support services company with an absolute growth rate of 170.1% and a CAGR of 39.3%. The company made $5.6 million revenue in 2020 compared to $2.4 million in 2017.

11. IHS Nigeria: The telecoms company, founded in 2001, has an absolute growth rate of 160.6% and a CAGR of 37.6%. In 2020, it had revenue of $1,037.6 million, far beyond its $398.1 million in 2017.   

12. FoodCo Nigeria Ltd.: A retail company with absolute growth rate of 144.9% and CAGR of 34.8%, FoodCo made $17.7 million revenue in 2020 compared to $8.5 million in 2017.   

13. Global Accelerex Ltd.: Fintech company with 121.0% absolute growth rate and CAGR of 30.3%, Global Accelerex was founded in 2013 and made revenue of $16.8 million in 2020, compared to $8.9 million in 2017.

14. Prestige Assurance Co. Plc: Prestige Assurance is an insurance company with absolute growth rate of 84.0% and CAGR of 22.5%. The company made $19.5 million in 2020, compared to $12.5 million in 2017.

15. Julius Berger Nigeria Plc: Julius Berger is a Construction company with an absolute growth rate of 70.4% and a CAGR of 19.4%. The company made $673.1 million revenue in 2020, compared to $464.0 million in 2017.

16. Genesis Food Nigeria Ltd.: The restaurants-focused company has an absolute growth rate of 54.1% and CAGR of 15.5%. The company made revenue of $24.4 million in 2020 compared to $18.6 million in 2017.

17. Courteville Business Solutions Plc: Courteville is a technology company with absolute growth rate of 50.8% and CAGR of 14.7%. The company made $4.7 million in 2020, compared to $3.7 million in 2017.

18. RT Briscoe Plc: An Automobiles company with absolute growth rate of 48.0% and CAGR of    14.0%. In revenue, Briscoe made $18.0 million in 2020, compared to $14.3 million in 2017.

19. Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc: The insurance company has an absolute growth rate of 45.5% and CAGR of 13.3%. In 2020, it made revenue of $54.1 million, compared to $43.7 million in 2017.

20. United Capital Plc: United Capital is a Financial Services company with an absolute growth rate of 44.4% and a CAGR of 13.0%. Compared to 2017, where it made revenue of $29.2 million, the company had $35.8 million in 2020.

21. Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc: A Food & Beverage, NNFM has an absolute growth rate of 42.2% and a CAGR of 12.4%. The company made $2,148.1 million in total revenue for 2020, compared to $1,774.6 million in 2017.

The post 21 Nigerian Companies among 75 Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies in FT Ranking 2022 appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.