BIG STORY
Most influential African companies in 2024.
This year’s list contains a few African companies whose ideas have created a positive ripple effect on the continent at large.
TIME’s editors, under the direction of Emma Barker, poll its contributors and correspondents worldwide, solicit recommendations and applications from a variety of industries, and consult with other specialists to choose and come up with the list.
Most influential African companies in 2024
Spiro:
Spiro is an electric motorbike startup. This company which was founded in 2019 and already has a fleet of 14,000 electric two-wheelers. Spiro appeared in Togo and Benin in 2022, followed by Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Nigeria in 2023.
In Uganda, the e-bike and battery swapping company has worked with the government to replace its polluting moto taxi fleet, known as boda-bodas, with electric two-wheelers.
M-Kopa:
M-Kopa is a pay-as-you-go product for underbanked customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana. The business, which also offers health insurance, home solar system, and e-bike loans to those on a daily income, partnered with Nokia maker HMD Global to establish Kenya’s first smartphone manufacturing plant last year.
More than 300 jobs and more than a million phones have been manufactured at the factory. With over 4 million users and $248 million in sales last year, Moore believes there is a direct correlation between the company’s expansion and the financial success of its clients.
AFEX:
AFEX pulls farmers out of isolation into an integrated agricultural system, purchasing their goods at market prices.
AFEX has reached over 500,000 across Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, facilitating over 1 million metric tons of trades on its digital platform, ComX. AFEX is currently one of the continent’s fastest-growing firms, having secured $26.5 million in investment last year.