Mary Vilakazi Again Leads Africa.com's Ranking of Women Running the Continent's Biggest Firms

Scale, not a one-year spike

Mary Vilakazi, group chief executive of FirstRand, again tops Africa.com's 2026 list of women running the continent's largest listed companies. She took the FirstRand helm in 2024 and keeps first place because of the size of the South African banking group — about $8.58 billion on the ranking's measure — not because of a single news cycle.

The list is drawn from Bloomberg data across African exchanges. Behind Vilakazi are Mpumi Madisa at Bidvest, Mpumi Zikalala at Kumba Iron Ore and Jeanette Marais at Momentum, with Naziha Belkeziz of Morocco's Banque Centrale Populaire also in the top five.

A map of operating power

Nigeria appears through Adaora Umeoji at Zenith Bank and Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe at Fidelity Bank. Kenya's Jane Karuku runs East African Breweries. Tanzania's Ruth Zaipuna leads NMB Bank. The geography is banking, mining, brewing and industrials — the firms that actually clear payments and ship commodities.

Why the ranking is a business story

These are not honorary titles. They are P&Ls large enough to move national credit markets. Vilakazi staying at No. 1 is a reminder that African corporate leadership already has women at the scale end of the table.