Asoko Insight launches platform for ranking Africa’s fastest growing companies

Asoko Insight, fondly called the African Data Company, has partnered African Business magazine and Ernst & Young to launch a platform for ranking and showcasing Africa’s growing companies.

Called Africa Ranking, the platform will become a reference point for companies driving the region’s growth based on audited and verifiable company data.

It will feature a report showing the extensive ranking of the best performing, privately-held companies, determined by three key indicators: financial performance, growth, and governance, across Africa.

The ranking will be open to companies that have a minimal annual turnover equivalent to US$500,000, are for-profit and are headquartered in Africa.

Companies that have seen a growth in trade with other African member states will be given preference, and data points will also look at growth in investment in other African member states.

Each entry will be weighted so that the most important indicators have the highest impact on a company’s score.

Successful applications will be selected on their year-on-year growth performance, not financial size.

Over the past ten years, Africa’s private sector has witnessed impressive growth in trade and investment. But the predominant focus remains on the continent’s most established corporates, said Rob Withagen, Asoko’s co-Founder and Managing Director.

He added, “The Africa Ranking will be the first pan-African initiative that identifies the progress of a much wider pool of solid, African companies for the global business and investment community to engage with.”

To be published in February 2017, the report will also provide companies with global exposure, as well as a metric against which to benchmark their performance.