PURPOSE-DRIVEN & PROUDLY AFRICAN

FROM FINTECH TO FOODTECH SOLUTIONS; FROM BEAUTY BRANDS TO BIOTECH INFUSIONS, FORBES AFRICA'S INAUGURAL LIST OF SMALL GIANTS ACROSS AFRICA SHOWCASES THE TENACITY OF HOMEGROWN BUSINESSES AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITIES THEY SERVE. THEIR PAN-AFRICAN CEOFOUNDERS AND LEADERS ARE MAKING GIANT STRIDES IN PROGRESSING AFRICA'S GROWTH NARRATIVE, PRIORITIZING IMPACT AND INNOVATION.

- Chanel Retief, Nicole Pillay, Oluwatomisin Amokeoja

The mark of a good business often relies on three Ps: profit, people and planet. It's hard to say which 'P' should be prioritized but as the companies on our first cohort of impactful Small Giants will attest, people, be they employees, managers or customers, can make all the difference. Second to that is the proudly African' thread that has been woven through each of these businesses.

The Small Giants are the businesses that believe small is better, and purpose as important as profit, and most times, even more. They are drawn from the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector in Africa that's a sizeable mass, incorporated in the formal and informal economies.

In the 2023 Mastercard SME Confidence Index, the World Bank notes that SMES account for 60% of jobs in Africa. However, they operate in cash-based economies and face a $330 billion financing gap. A 2022 African Union Development Agency report supports this, indicating that SMEs account for closer to 80% of jobs in Africa. These statistics reinforce SMEs as a significant mechanism for socio-economic growth.

StatsSA reported that industries in South Africa's formal business sector, in particular, generated ZAR10.5 trillion ($677.42 billion) in total turnover in the 2019 financial year. The report further stipulated that the breakdown of turnover by business size shows that small businesses were responsible for generating ZAR2.3 trillion ($148.39 billion) of the ZAR10.5 trillion.

To complement our research in compiling this list, we spoke to several of these small businesses, and a significant aspect of the discussion to determine scale revolved around financial revenues, but unsurprisingly, there was a common reluctance among the majority of the firms to share this data.