- Largest Company in Nigeria Access Holdings Plc
- The Most Revenue Earner Access Holdings Plc
- The Most Profitable Company Zenith Bank Plc
- The Most Capitalised Company MTN Nigeria Communications Plc
- The Most Employer of Labour Dangote Cement Plc
- The Most Tax Payer United Bank for Africa Plc
Access Holdings Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, MTN Nigeria Plc, Dangote Cement Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc emerged as Nigeria’s corporate leaders in 2023.
For the third time in a row, Access Holdings emerged as the largest company in the country with total assets of N26,688.83 billion, while United Bank for Africa, with total assets of N20,653.20 billion, emerged as the second largest company in the country, and Zenith Bank emerged as the third largest company with total assets of N20,368.46 billion.
For the first time, Access Holdings emerged as the most revenue earner, pushing MTN Nigeria Communications which has been the record holder to the second position. It posted a princely revenue of N2,468.85 billion at the end of the 2023 accounting year to reach this height. MTN Nigeria Communications occupied the second position with total revenue of N2,468.85 billion, while Dangote Cement occupied the third position with total earnings of N2,208.09 billion.
Dangote Cement Plc retained its position as the most employer of labour in 2023. It is like the company now has the trophy of the most employer of labour in the country for keeps since it snatched it from the construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. It had a total of 19,073 in its employ in 2023. Julius Berger retained its second position with 11,716 employees while United Bank for Africa emerged as the third most employer of labour in the country with 10,007 employees at the end of the 2023 reporting year.
Zenith Bank Plc emerged as the most profitable company in Nigeria in 2023, displacing Dangote Cement which had somewhat monopolised that position for years. It posted a princely profit after tax of N676.91 billion to attain that position. It is followed by Access Holdings Plc which posted profit after tax of N619.32 billion. United Bank for Africa emerged as the third most profitable company in the country with profit after tax of N607.70 billion.
MTN Nigeria Communications Plc retained its position as the most capitalised company in Nigeria by posting the largest market capitalization of N5,542.94 billion in 2023. It is followed closely by Dangote Cement with market capitalization of N5,451.26 billion. Bua Foods Plc emerged as the third most capitalised company in Nigeria with market capitalisation of N3,481.20 billion.
When it appeared that it was comfortable with occupying any position other than the first, United Bank for Africa Plc emerged as the most tax payer in 2023. The bank paid a hefty corporate income tax of N149.98 billion in 2023, displacing MTN Nigeria Communications which held that record in 2022 and Dangote Cement which occupied the position for years. It is followed by Zenith Bank which paid N119.05 billion, and Access Holdings which paid N109.68 billion.
These results were arrived at after a painstaking analysis of the performance and ranking of the over 120 companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). The analysis was done with a view to establishing the best performing publicly-held companies in Nigeria. The objective is to provide existing and potential investors with information that they can rely on when they are taking investment decisions with regard to companies listed on the NGX.
The first step in the analysis is to extract the Total Assets, Revenues, Profit After Tax, Market Capitalisation, Number of Employees and Tax Payment from the audited financial statements of all the companies listed on the NGX. Next, we sort the total assets of the companies from the largest to the smallest and cut off at the 100th. The hundred companies that emerge from this exercise are Nigeria’s Top 100 Publicly-held Companies. Any company that makes it to the corporate elite club of Nigeria’s Top 100 Publicly-held Companies (ranking by total assets) is automatically a candidate for further ranking by Revenues, Profits, Market Capitalisation, Number of Employees and Tax Payment. The rankings show how the listed companies stand on the corporate ladder with regard to these performance indicators.
This edition of Nigeria’s Top 100 Companies covers the 2023 accounting year. It is therefore a performance analysis of the companies based on their audited financial statements for the 2023 reporting year. In other words, the information used in the analysis is extracted from the annual report and accounts of the various companies published in 2023, irrespective of whether a company’s year-end is March, June, September, December, or any other month in 2023.
The analysis is restricted to publicly-held companies in the country. The reason for this is that accounts of listed companies are easier to access than those of private companies. Moreover, the accounts of publicly-held companies are more believable because they are usually subjected to regulatory scrutiny and approval.
Certainly, there are many private companies that would easily count among the top 100 companies in the country given their huge balance sheet size, the humongous revenue they post annually and the mouth-watering profits they declare. But they are not a part of this performance review and analysis because their audited financial statements do not go through the kind of regulatory scrutiny and approval that the listed companies face and, are, therefore not as believable as those of the publicly-held companies. Again, the audited financial statements of these private companies are very difficult to access.