Top 10 most valuable companies in Nigeria

Nigerian fintech giant Flutterwave recently disclosed that it’s in the middle of raising a Series E round that values the company at $3.25 billion.

It’s the most valuable startup in the country — and likely on the continent.

But there are more valuable established companies in Africa’s most populous country.

The list of the ten largest publicly traded companies by market cap tells a clear story: cement, telecoms, oil & gas, and financial services run the country’s economy.

And with three cement makers on the list, the country is still very much building itself.

Here’s how the top 10 breaks down as of June 23, 2026:

1. Dangote Cement — $12.9 billion — Africa’s largest cement producer, operating across 10 African countries. The anchor of Aliko Dangote’s listed empire until the heavily anticipated Dangote Refinery IPO comes to market in H2.
2. MTN Nigeria — $12.7 billion — Nigeria’s largest telco by subscribers, serving ~96 million customers across the country with a dominant ~52% market share as of April 2026.

   

3. BUA Foods — $12.3 billion — Nigeria’s consumer staples giant: sugar, flour, pasta. Serves the essentials economy for 200M+ people. ~95% owned by Abdul Samad Rabiu.

   

4. Airtel Africa — $11.9 billion — Pan-African telco serving 150M+ customers across 14 markets. Incorporated in the UK but operationally Africa-first. Airtel Money IPO expected in H2.

   

5. BUA Cement — $9.3 billion — Nigeria’s second-largest cement producer. Like BUA Foods, ~96% controlled by Rabiu, making him one of the most powerful forces on the NGX.
6. Aradel Holdings — $5.5 billion — Nigeria’s leading indigenous integrated energy company, spanning upstream, midstream, and downstream oil & gas. Listed on the NGX in October 2024 and has more than doubled in value since.
7. Seplat Energy — $5.0 billion — Nigeria’s largest independent energy company, dual-listed on the NGX and LSE. Benefiting from the same upstream tailwinds as Aradel.
8. Huaxin Building Materials Nigeria (formerly Lafarge Africa) — $3.7 billion — The third cement maker in the top 10, a testament to Nigeria’s infrastructure moment. China’s Huaxin Cement acquired the 83.81% stake in Lafarge Africa Switzerland’s Holcim owned for $1 billion in late 2025; the rebrand happened in June 2026.
9. Zenith Bank — $3.5 billion — Nigeria’s largest bank by assets and Tier-1 capital, serving ~40 million customers across Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
10. Guaranty Trust Holding Company — $3.4 billion — Parent of GTBank, one of Nigeria’s most profitable and best-capitalized lenders, with operations across 10 African countries and the UK.

Three things worth noting:

• The Rabiu empire — BUA Foods (#3, $12.3B) plus BUA Cement (#5, $9.3B) — continues to grow. According to reports, the market rally has catapulted the net worth of Abdul Samad Rabiu, who some dismiss as ‘merely’ replicating the Dangote playbook, and he has overtaken South Africa’s Johann Rupert to become Africa’s second-richest man.

• But all eyes remain on the continent’s richest man, Aliko Dangote. The impending IPO of the Dangote Refinery is commanding tremendous attention across the continent and the diaspora, with the company targeting a $40-50B valuation — approximately one-third of the total market cap of all companies currently listed on the NGX.
• Finally, there’s also a lot of anticipation surrounding the IPO of Airtel Africa’s lucrative mobile money unit. When Mastercard and TPG’s Rise Fund originally invested, the contract stipulated that if Airtel Money doesn’t IPO by July 31st, they could force Airtel Africa to buy back their stakes — an obligation valued at roughly $515 million.

  

  With that deadline weeks away, Airtel Africa has to prepare to write the check or convince Mastercard/TPG not to exercise their put option — a conversation made considerably easier by staying on track for an IPO in H2 2026. There’s an additional wrinkle: while Airtel Africa is dual-listed on both the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Nigerian Exchange, the upcoming Airtel Money IPO seems to just be targeting an LSE listing. Coupled with the news that OPay is targeting a US IPO, it’s a quiet reminder that for all the growth of African capital markets, foreign markets remain the preferred choice when the stakes are high enough.

While fintech — Flutterwave, OPay, Moniepoint, et al. — dominates the headlines, Nigeria’s most valuable companies are keeping the country running in a literal sense: powering people’s homes and cars, feeding them, connecting them, and building the infrastructure they live in.

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