Nigeria has dominated Africa Report’s first ranking of the digital economy’s power players taking up 11 spots on the list. South Africa takes 6 with Kenya only getting 2.
The list includes leaders in Infrastructure, telecommunications, startups, e-commerce, policy, media, and fintech.
“In three decades, operators have gone through global crises relatively untroubled. After the development of 2G networks, then 3G and 4G networks, submarine cables and mobile-mobile payments, the continent has taken a new technological leap – that of the platform economy,” The African Report stated.
“For our ranking, we used a series of criteria ranging from innovation capacity to financial strength and the size of funds raised, as well as leadership and notoriety, with the main focus on events that occurred during the period 2020 to 2021. This ranking cannot claim to be an objective truth, but it presents our vision of a revolution that we have followed since its beginnings.”
While women are still in the minority in this ecosystem, and particularly in the top roles, they are far from being absent.
Zimbabwean founder of Econet, Strive Masiyiwa topped the list
In Kenya, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa and Omidyar Network Director of Investments Ory Okolloh were ranked 9th and 37th respectively.
Kenyan-based companies such as payment gateway technology firm Cellulant and M-Kopa which provide unbanked customers with clean energy solutions have their founders Akshay Grover from India and Jesse More, and Americans make it on the list at position 34 and 35 respectively.
