Following the global release of the “2020 Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands on Africa Day”, Brand Africa, in partnership with TBWAParagon, announced Namibia’s rankings of the most admired brands. International sport and lifestyle brand Nike is the most admired brand overall, while local telecommunications giant MTC was named the most admired local brand. 

MTC leads the local listing, including Mshasho at number two and Top Score at number three. Namibia Breweries Limited was recognised as the most admired brand listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange. Mshasho was recognised as the number one African brand in Namibia, ahead of South Africa’s MTN and DSTV, with local stalwart brands Windhoek Lager and MTC rounding off the top five.
In the media sub-survey, South Africa’s DSTV, the local broadcaster NBC and CNN are the top three most admired media brands in Namibia.  
In the financial services sub-survey, South Africa’s FNB was recognised as the most admired financial services brand in Namibia, with Namibia’s Windhoek Bank and Old Mutual rounding off the top three.

In a comparison of the global Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands rankings, where 90% of the brands are non-Africa, 80% of the most admired brands in Namibia are non-African, with Nike again leading as it does in the rest of Africa.  MTC and Mshasho are the only two Namibian brands in the unprompted list of local brands.

Established 10 years ago to coincide with the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the world’s biggest single sporting event, the Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best brands survey rankings have established themselves as the most authoritative survey, analysis and metric of brands in Africa.
It is a consumer-led survey, which seeks to establish brand preferences across Africa. The survey is conducted among a representative sample of respondents 18 years and older in 27 countries, which collectively represent 50% of the continent, covering all economic regions and accounting for an estimate 80% of the population and the GDP of Africa. The 2020 survey was conducted between February and April 2020 and yielded over 15 000 brand mentions and over 2 000 unique brands.

In the global Brand Africa 100: Africa’s Best Brands rankings, African brands have dropped to an all-time lowest ranking of 13/100 (13%) in the Top 100 most admired brands in Africa – a 7% fall from last year. Out of the top 100 brands in 2010/11, only half of the brands still appear in this year’s list due to mergers and acquisitions and the obsolescence of many brands. 

Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Brand Leadership says, “It is concerning that in the 10 years since the triumphant FIFA World Cup in South Africa which globally highlighted the promise and capability of Africa, and despite the vibrant entrepreneurial environment, Africa is not creating more competitive brands to meet the needs of its growing consumer market,”. He continued: “But what is exciting to see in Namibia is how challenger local brands like Mshasho and GMP are taking on the bigger heritage Namibian brands – it underlines African’s entrepreneurial spirit and opportunity.”

 In relation to the announcement of the Namibian results, Lazarus Jacobs, Executive Director, Paragon Investment Holdings and Brand Africa board member said: “This project has been a result of 10 years of working with local brands and the best minds in Africa, we are really pleased that we have finally launched the Namibian edition of The Best African Brands, as it goes a long way in stamping our unique and diverse imprint on the African brand landscape, we believe this is a start of great collaborations and truly living in the global village and true to the spirit of Ubuntu, we are glad we get to bring local skills and minds together with the rest of Africa to the table to celebrate our true Africanism, through brands”.

Karin Du Chenne, Kantar’s chief growth officer Africa Middle East stated: “The complex task of analysing a vast amount of diverse data, countries and trends over 10 years has given us a deep insight into how brands have changed, adapted and kept in step with the changing African environment and consumer who demands more from their brands.”  Kantar has been the insight lead for Brand Africa since its inception in 2010.  The Brand Africa 100 results are expected to be published in the June issue of the African Business magazine.