The financial times (FT) recently published 130 lists of fastest growing companies in Africa for 2025, with Nigerian technology companies taking the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.
The list was dominated by South Africa and Nigeria companies, accounting for 79 businesses combined from the two nations. South Africa alone accounts for 51 businesses, the highest for any African country on the list; while Nigeria accounts for 28 businesses on the list.
Nigeria continues to show that, indeed, it is the giant of Africa, not only in population but also in economic growth and entrepreneurship development. Nigeria has a population of over 200 million people, the largest in Africa according to world bank; with the 4th largest GDP ($188.27 billion)in the continent, only behind Algeria with $268.86 billion, Egypt $347.34 billion and South Africa with the highest GDP of $410.35 billion.
Occupying the FT top3 are Nigerian business giants: Omniretail Inc, an E-commerce company leading the list , palmpay Ltd. a financial technology company ranking 2nd on the list, and Remedial Health Inc. a Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics business ranked 3rd. The top 3 ranking shows Nigeria’s prowess in economic, technology and innovative domination in Africa.
According to financial times, fintech is the fastest growing industry in Africa, with fintech companies making 20% on the overall list, 26 fintech companies around Africa appeared on the list. Subsequently followed by IT& software companies, 21 IT software companies also appeared on the list. This highlights that the shape of financial services in Africa is significantly changing.
The FT ranking, compiled in conjunction with research company Statista and now in its fourth year, is backward looking, ranking businesses according to the compound growth rate between 2020 and 2023.
Omniretail Inc.
Omniretail ranking 1st on the list is an E-commerce company on a journey to accelerate trade value chain stakeholders’ progress by unlocking access to services and the flow of working capital, with the vision to build the largest profitable network of retailers in Africa, by simplifying distribution and retailing of essential goods in the region. Their platform connects manufacturers with retailers, facilitating online ordering and transactions. Omniretail was established in January 2019 in Lagos state, Nigeria. By June 2020 they lunched their app and digitalized their first 1000 retailers in November 2020, they expanded to 5 states by June 2021 and grossed N1billion Naira transactions in July and were able to digitalize 35,000 retailers by the end of 2021. However, within 2022 omniretail secured $3million funding, partnered with over 50 manufacturers and increased number of retailers to 65,000. By 2023 they scaled up heavily after securing $7.5million funding from marquee investors. They grossed over 100billion Naira transactions and launched in Ivory Coast and retailers grew to over 100,000 within the end of 2023. In 2024 omniretail launched in Ghana and transactions grossed over 500billion Naira. Omniretail currently operates in 3 countries (Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast) and is the fastest growing company in Africa.
PalmPay Ltd.
Ranking 2nd on the FT list, a fintech innovative startup with the aim of making digitized payments more accessible and flexible. Report says palmpay offers faster financial services than traditional banks. By 2018 palmpay launched in Nigeria, and rolled out financial services in Nigeria in 2020, their financial services which includes giving out small loans to users. 2021 comes the big expansion after securing a $100million series A funding. The funding was secured from multiple investors, including: Chuangshi Capital, Yushi Capital, and AfricInvest. 2022 palmpay launched in Ghana, the subsequent year; they recorded revenue of over $63million (2023), 30million users, 2500 plus global employees and over 500000 agents around Africa.
Remedial Health Inc.
ranking 3rd on the 130 financial times list, is Remedial Health, a health technology company that provides inventory, software, data and financing solutions to healthcare providers and small businesses in Africa.
At Remedial Health, they provide a technology-driven platform that streamlines pharmaceutical procurement, enables real-time inventory management, offers actionable business insights, and delivers flexible financing options—empowering healthcare providers to operate more efficiently and serve their communities better, they offer solutions that seek to streamline pharmacy operations and close the gap between pharmacies and wards/patients.
Remedial health inc was founded in September 2020 by Samuel Okwuada and Victor Benjamin both has a combined 20 years experience in pharmaceutical and software development sectors in Africa, they launched remedial health in march 2021, by august, they grossed 300 pharmacies network served by Remedial Health. However in October over $800,000 worth of inventories deployed, later in November 2021 they secured a $12 million funding to expand their services around Africa. They recorded $16 million revenue in 2023 and currently employed over 300 staffs.
