Vodacom is closing the gap on its biggest rival
South African telecoms giant Vodacom could soon overtake its largest competitor, MTN, as the most valuable brand on the African continent.
Brand Finance Africa (BFA) recently released their Africa 200 report for 2026, detailing the strongest and most valuable brands currently operating across the African continent.
MTN retained its top spot as the most valuable African brand for the 13th consecutive year, with an estimated brand value of just over $2.9 billion.
While MTN’s value remained stable over the last year, second-place holder Vodacom showed significant growth in its brand value during the same period.
Vodacom’s brand value, as reported in the 2026 report, had reached $2.75 billion, an increase of 8.6% from the previous year.
This represented a significant closing of the gap between the two rival companies, not only due to an increase in Vodacom’s brand value but also a significant decline in MTN’s.
MTN’s brand value was more than double that of Vodacom’s in 2022 and reached a peak of almost $4.4 billion the following year.
Since then, however, MTN’s absolute brand value has contracted by approximately a third of its high, while Vodacom’s has increased by around 17.4% in the same period.
BFA attributed MTN’s declining lead to macroeconomic pressures and geographic risks, rather than an actual deterioration in its brand strength.
Specifically, the report highlighted economic volatility, inflation, and regulatory challenges in MTN’s Nigerian market as major drivers of this decline.
“The cumulative depreciation of the Nigerian Naira between 2023 and 2024 sharply reduced the dollar value of Nigeria’s revenue contribution to the group,” BFA said.
“At the same time, the high discount rates applied to Nigerian and other higher-risk market cash flows further compress the present value of future brand earnings.”
MTN’s Nigeria operation contributes approximately 27% of the group’s revenue but nearly half of its profit.
Aside from Nigeria, BFA pointed to increasingly volatile markets for MTN, such as Ghana, Sudan, and Iran, as compounding pressure on the company’s value.
Vodacom’s strategy is helping it succeed
Alongside MTN’s brand value decline, Vodacom’s ability to consistently increase its value in recent years has narrowed the gap considerably.
BFA said this consistency was in large part due to Vodacom’s stronger operational focus and financial resilience compared to its rival.
“Vodacom has benefitted from stronger brand strength fundamentals in its core South African market, consistently outperforming MTN on customer-centric metrics,” the BFA said.
These metrics include customer consideration, company reputation, and the quality of Vodacom’s products and services, BFA said.
“Combined with sustained network investment, such as 5G rollout now covering over 50% of South Africa’s population, this enabled steady value growth and narrowed the gap.”
The report pointed to Vodacom’s diversification strategy as one of the main drivers of the company’s value growth, citing its expansion into other territories across Africa.
In 2017, Vodacom acquired a 35% ownership in Kenya’s largest telecoms provider Safaricom, which also appeared on BFA’s Top 200 report as Africa’s 45th most valuable brand.
Vodacom announced in December 2025 that it would acquire an additional 15% stake in Safaricom from the Kenyan government, but the Kenyan High Court has deferred this deal pending an investigation.
The two telcos previously partnered in 2007 to launch the M-Pesa mobile money platform in Kenya, which has since been expanded to other countries across Africa.
M-Pesa appeared in BFA’s report at 65th place, bolstered by its strong sustainability credentials, and was described by BFA as a brand to watch in the future.
The partnership has also allowed Vodacom to expand into markets such as Ethiopia, where it has held a 6.2% ownership stake in Safaricom’s Ethiopian operations since 2021.
“I think their consistency has started to show through,” BFA’s Director of Strategy and Insights Jenny Moore told 702. “They’ve done a lot of investment in infrastructure.”
“They’ve really bedded down a lot of the elements of their brand and their marketing, and we’re starting to see that come through in the consistent growth of their brand.”
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