Six companies with operations in Kenya make at least Ksh130.5 billion (USD1 billion) worth of revenues each year, a report published by the McKinsey Global Institute shows.
In the report titled; Reimagining Economic Growth in Africa; Turning Diversity Into Opportunity, Kenya was ranked top in East Africa serving as home to the 6 companies out of the 345 firms within the continent falling under this bracket.
McKinsey's report points out that 40 per cent of the 345 companies are headquartered in South Africa.
Instructively, South Africa was listed as having 147 such companies while nations such as Uganda, Burundi, Mozambique and others have none.
The report highlighted that almost half of the large homegrown companies are publicly traded, 30 per cent are privately owned while the remaining ones are state-owned enterprises.
"The rest of the large companies operating in Africa are subsidiaries of foreign firms, roughly 37 per cent of which are publicly traded and the remainder private, including a few state-owned enterprises primarily from China," read part of the report.
According to the study, foreign-owned companies have a disproportionately significant role in Kenya and other African countries.
Some of these account for one-third of all large companies in Africa and roughly one-third of corporate revenues. In Kenya, several foreign companies have set up branches.
These foreign companies as well as homegrown ones are concentrated in services while state-owned enterprises are more involved in extractive industries.
Despite the visible growth from African companies, the report revealed that the number of large corporations in the continent shrank compared to those from other regions.
"We estimate that since 2015, Africa has lost 16 per cent of its businesses with revenues exceeding $1 billion (only one-tenth of the loss was due to exchange rate effects) and added 9 per cent more new large firms—resulting in a net decrease in large companies," read part of the report.
In the report, Kenya was also listed among the countries which have shown consistent growth.
This report comes at a time when several companies and business owners have decried tough economic times forcing them to shut down and relocate.
Business owners have complained about increased taxes, a hostile business environment, and expensive inputs among other factors which have seen some Kenyans lose their jobs.
