Southern Africa’s Top Companies ’25: the rise of Malawi

Our table of the 20 biggest listed companies in Southern Africa (ex-South Africa) includes companies from across the region, including seven from Malawi, four from Namibia, four from Zimbabwe, three from Mauritius and one each from Botswana and Zambia. For the separate list of South African companies, click here.

The big change here over the past year has been that Malawi and Zimbabwe have gained three and two positions respectively.

In particular, the four Malawian banks that were ranked between 10th and 14th last year are now listed between 4th and 8th. FMB Capital Holdings is now the biggest Malawian bank, moving up from 13th to 4th on the back of a massive increase in market capitalisation from $539m to $1,963m. It has overtaken National Bank of Malawi (NBM), despite that bank’s increase from $646m to $1,669m.

NBM announced a 42% increase in lending for the year to June 2024, a 30% rise in customer deposits and a 19% rise in post-tax profits to 41.1bn kwacha ($2.4m). It is growing across the retail, business, investment banking and wealth management sectors but the one downside was a K2.6bn ($1.49m) loss for its subsidiary, Akiba Commercial Bank, based in Tanzania. In September it concluded a $100m trade agreement deal with Afreximbank, the biggest trade finance agreement ever in Malawi, to support trade deals by Malawian companies, as NBM becomes increasingly active across the rest of Southern Africa.

Malawi’s First Discount House (FDH) bank was not even included in our Southern African regional Top 20 last year but has moved up from 243rd to 98th in the continental Top 250 as a result of a huge increase in value from $259m to $1,254m. It too secured support from Afreximbank last year, in the form of a $15m amortising term loan facility to support traders and manufacturers in the country.

FDH recorded a 55% increase in post-tax profits in the year to June 2024 to K35.6bn ($20.3m) despite investing heavily in a range of digital platforms and staff training. Growth rates on these levels would have to be sustained for the Malawian banking sector to maintain its position in our regional Southern African table next year.

The biggest company in the region is Namibia’s B2Gold Corporation, which has benefited from the rise in international gold prices over the past year. Its market value has increased from $3,485m to $3,750m over the past year, although this is still down on its 2020 figure of $4,856m.

Aside from the rise of Malawian banks, the most remarkable development in our regional table this year is the $514m that Mauritius’s IBL Ltd needed to secure the final position in our rankings, up from the $369m that Zambia National Commercial Bank recorded in the same spot last year and indeed none of the market capitalisations of the final six companies in our Southern Africa table last year would have been sufficient to achieve a ranking this year.

To view the full list of Africa’s Top 250 Companies 2025 click here.