- Forbes ranked Nedbank as the highest-placed African company on its World's Best Employers 2026 list, placing it 26th globally
- Nine of the 10 highest-ranked African companies are headquartered in South Africa, with banking and financial services dominating the list
- Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank is the only non-South African firm to feature among the top 10 African employers on the Forbes ranking
TUKO.co.ke journalist Japhet Ruto has over eight years of experience in financial, business, and technology reporting, offering insights into Kenyan and global economic trends.
Nedbank has emerged as the highest-ranked African company on the Forbes World's Best Employers 2026 list, placing 26th out of 900 companies featured globally, with South Africa accounting for nine of the continent's top ten entries.
Source: Facebook
The annual ranking, now in its seventh edition, was compiled by Forbes in partnership with research firm Statista following a survey of more than 300,000 employees spanning over 50 countries.
Only multinational companies with workforces of at least 1,000 employees were eligible, and the final list covers firms headquartered across 52 countries.
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How did Forbes compile the 2026 ranking?
Participants rated their current employers across several workplace dimensions, including the likelihood of recommending the company to family or friends, employee benefits, talent development, training opportunities, and the overall work environment.
The survey also allowed respondents to assess organisations they had left within the previous two years, as well as companies they were familiar with through professional or personal networks.
Because the methodology draws on perceptions of large, internationally active employers, the results reflect how workers view multinational corporations rather than offering a broad picture of workplace conditions across the African continent as a whole.
South Africa dominates, Nigeria makes the List
South Africa's banking sector leads the African contingent firmly. Standard Bank Group, Absa Group, and FirstRand follow Nedbank in second, third, and fourth place respectively among African firms.
Telecommunications group MTN ranks fifth, while investment bank Investec comes in sixth.
Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank occupies seventh place, making it the only company outside South Africa to break into the continent's top ten. Sasol, the South African chemicals and construction group, ranks eighth, followed by private hospital operator Mediclinic International in ninth. Sanlam, another South African financial services firm, rounds out the top ten.
Financial services companies account for seven of the ten positions, underscoring the dominance of the banking and insurance sector in shaping employer reputation across the continent. Telecommunications, chemicals and raw materials, and healthcare each claim one spot on the list.
Which are the largest economies in Africa?
In other news, we also highlighted facts about the top 10 largest economies in Africa in 2026, including Kenya’s seventh-place ranking and the IMF’s GDP figures for the leading countries.
South Africa topped the list with a GDP of KSh 63.5 trillion, while Kenya edged out Ghana and Ethiopia.
The Democratic Republic of Congo also entered the top 10, rounding out a ranking dominated by North and Southern African economies.
Source: TUKO.co.ke