Twenty-eight companies in Nigeria have been listed in a ranking by the Financial Times and research company Statista among the fastest-growing companies in the continent.

The ranking, now in its fourth year, comes against a background in which many economies are struggling to recover from the Covid pandemic. It lists 130 companies, ranking businesses according to the compound growth rate between 2020 and 2023.

The Nigerian firms are as follows: Omniretail Inc., PalmPay Ltd, Remedial Health Inc., Termii Inc., Bisedge Ltd., Winock Solar Nigeria Ltd., Moniepoint Inc., Evercare Hospital Lekki Ltd., Neveah Ltd., Alpha Morgan Capital Managers Ltd., BlueCamp Ltd., X3M Marketing Ideas Ltd., Chams Holding Company Plc, Transcorp Hotels Plc, Emerging Africa Capital Ltd., Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc, Sundry Markets Ltd., and United Capital Plc.

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Others include The Tourist Company of Nigeria Plc, Trexm Holdings, FoodCo Nigeria Ltd., Fidson Healthcare Plc, Meyer Plc, Comercio Partners Ltd,. Amel International Services Ltd. Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc, St. Nicholas Hospital Ltd. and Paga Group Ltd.

“Of the top three ranked companies, all Nigerian, only one, second-placed PalmPay, operates in more than three countries. Omniretail, an embedded finance and B2B enabling platform, which came in first place for the second year running, operates in only two countries outside its Nigerian base, Ghana and Ivory Coast,” FT said in the ranking report.

Iyin Aboyeji, co-founder of Future Africa, which invests in early-stage businesses, says it is not necessary to build a pan-African presence given the opportunities in key economies, particularly Nigeria and South Africa.

“Most companies that have gone into unicorn status have done so without going through that pain,” he says, referring to businesses — two of which he co-founded — that achieved a market capitalisation of $1 billion principally through exposure to Nigeria.

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Fintech continues to dominate the list, accounting for one-fifth of the companies in the ranking, the report said.

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 1, 2024, to January 31, 2025. 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 Omniretail, founded in 2019, topped the list, posting revenue of $0.28 million in 2020 to $120 million in 2023.

PalmPay Ltd, a fintech company, was ranked second; the firm’s revenue increased from $0.20 million to $63.9 million, and Remedial Health Inc. ranked third, with revenue rising to $16.3 million from $0.19 million.

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Ylva Lindberg, executive vice president at Norfund, the Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries, says the environment for investing in African start-ups has been difficult in the aftermath of Covid.

“Both the funding environment and the exit environment have been tough,” she says, citing sharp currency depreciations, particularly in Nigeria, but also in Kenya and Egypt, higher interest rates in advanced economies and rising sovereign debt burdens.

“Real risk in many emerging markets [including Africa] tends to be lower than the perceived risk,” she adds. “But when you see uncertainty rise, that’s when perceived risk becomes more prominent and home bias kicks in.”