East African companies are highly underrated in the top 250 compared to the region's population, but they are making steady progress, but slowly and steadily. The value of East African companies listed in our table has increased from $18.3 billion last year to $20.8 billion in 2025. This is mainly due to the rise in the value of Kenyan companies by $1.6 billion.
It is unclear how the April launch of the East Africa Securities Exchanges Association's new stock exchange index will affect Kenya's dominant position. The new index includes companies in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, including Kenya, KCB Group and Equity Group Holdings.
The index was developed by the Kenya Banks Association, which is also an anchor shareholder, and by the development agency FSD Africa, which provides technical support. It is supported by stock exchanges throughout the region, including those in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
In February it received regulatory approval from the Kenya Capital Markets Bureau to operate a commercial stock exchange and serve as an autonomous, self-regulatory organization.
Aside from stocks, it also offers a platform for trading repurchase agreements and Treasury securities. Evans Osano, director of FSD Africa's capital markets, commented: “This is the most important capital market infrastructure development in Kenya and the East African region in decades. We promise to improve the regional bond market to world-class status and contribute to the massive mobilization of long-term local currency financing for the East African economy.”
In January 2025, we finally saw the opening of Ethiopia's first stock exchange in decades. Its Chief Operating Officer Michael Habte is confident he will secure an additional list, saying his long-term goal is to have around 90 lists within the first decade.
Safaricom is the largest company in East Africa by a distance, with a market capitalization of more than three times that of Telecom operator MTN Uganda. In September it raised $116 million from a second tranche of sustainability-related loans from a consortium of four local banks, as it was partially owned by the UK Vodafone and the Kenyan government. A portion of the money will be used to switch generation from diesel to renewable energy to support its sustainability programme.

MTN Uganda's value jumped significantly from $978 million last year to $1,657 million in a 2025 survey, jumping Kenya's equity group in the process, becoming the highest ranked Ugandan company at the table. In fact, Kenya is far from having it all in its own way at the top of the local table, as Tanzania Breweries and NMB Bank fill in the fourth and fifth locations of the local table.
Click here to view the full list of Africa's top 250 companies 2025.
Company Focus: NMB Bank
Tanzania's NMB reached $933 million last year, from $748 million to $933 million in 2022, and now reaching $1,122 million, its value continues to grow steadily and strongly until it reaches East Africa's fifth largest listed company and the second largest bank after Kenya's equity group.
Tanzania's economy cannot challenge Kenya from a GDP standpoint, but as barriers to trade and financial services within East African communities gradually reduce, the firms become increasingly competitive regionally.
NMB became the first Tanzania Bank to list bonds on the London Stock Exchange. The three-year $73 million sustainability bond was listed on LSE's international securities market and sustainable bond market platform last April. “This not only highlights the NMB's commitment to transparency and commitment to sustainability goals, but also shows the continued support of international investors that African issuers can find in London.” The Bank of Tanzania also listed $32 million in “Jasiri bonds” on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.