In summary
- Africa’s top industrial conglomerates now generate over $100 billion annually, led by Eskom, Dangote, and Sonangol.
- South Africa dominates the list, while Nigeria and Angola contribute major energy and manufacturing players.
- The World Bank’s 2024/2025 outlook links Africa’s 3.5% GDP growth to rising industrialization and regional expansion by these firms.
Deep Dive!!
Africa in 2025 finds itself at a critical inflection point: despite a still-challenging global economic backdrop, the continent has demonstrated resilience, with regional growth in sub-Saharan Africa projected at 3.5 percent this year. This modest expansion belies a deeper structural shift: an increasing emphasis across African economies on industrialization, value-chain upgrade, and revenue mobilization through large-scale domestic enterprises. The continent’s capacity to anchor its growth in indigenous industrial champions, rather than in commodity export dependence alone, will be a defining factor in sustainable development.
Within this shifting landscape, the role of large, African-owned industrial conglomerates assumes outsized importance. These are firms that can marshal capital, integrate across multiple sectors (manufacturing, energy, logistics, processing), and deploy economies of scale and cross-border reach. In many cases, they serve as de facto engines of national industrial policy and employment, bridging gaps that purely private or small enterprises cannot. Their balance sheets and operational footprints reflect not just corporate success, but the ambitions of whole economies.
This article presents a curated list of the Top 10 African-Owned Business and Industrial Conglomerates by Revenue in 2025, profiling each in terms of scale, sectoral diversity, growth trajectory, and structural relevance. From cement and oil to energy, automotive, and pulp & paper, this roster captures the spectrum of continent-anchored industrial powerhouses. Through these profiles, we seek not only to rank by turnover, but also to highlight how these conglomerates navigate macro volatility, infrastructure headwinds, and the imperative of sustainable expansion.
10. Sappi Limited (South Africa)
Sappi Limited, headquartered in Johannesburg, is a leading global producer in wood-fibre and paper products with operations spanning multiple continents. In its fiscal year ended September 2024, Sappi reported revenues of $5,458 million (approximately $5.46 billion), down about 6.0% from the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for FY 2024 stood at $684 million, after accounting for special items and restructuring costs. The company’s net profit for that year was $33 million, compressed by high financing costs and restructuring expenses.
In its most recent quarters into 2025, Sappi has experienced operational and market headwinds that have muted growth. For the quarter ended June 2025 (Q3 FY25), the group reported revenue of$1,321 million, somewhat lower than in the comparative quarter of 2024 ($1,370 million). The same quarter delivered a net loss of $33 million, with adjusted EBITDA slipping to $80 million. The group’s net debt also rose to $1,947 million by June 2025, reflecting continued capital expenditure and currency translation pressures. Earlier, in the second quarter of FY 2025, Sappi suffered a loss of $20 million (versus a prior-year profit) and an adjusted EBITDA of $107 million. These dynamics underscore how global paper and pulp markets, cost pressures, and demand softness are straining margins.
Sappi’s business is vertically integrated, covering forest plantation, pulp manufacturing, specialty and packaging paper, and graphic paper segments. In its 2024 results commentary, the company emphasized that its pulp and forest businesses delivered relatively stronger performance, while graphic paper markets remained suppressed amid weak demand and prolonged destocking. To counter headwinds, Sappi has also been implementing capacity rationalizations, cost savings, optimization of working capital, and expansion in packaging and specialty paper lines under its “Thrive” growth strategy.
Although Sappi’s top-line of approximately $5.5 billion is smaller than those of giants like Eskom, Dangote, or Sonangol, its inclusion in a Top 10 list of African industrial conglomerates by revenue is defensible on the basis of its global scale, capital intensity, and vertical integration. Its exposure to export markets also means its revenues transcend South Africa, granting it a presence in global commodity, packaging, and pulp chains. In 2025, as paper and packaging demand recovers and as Sappi executes on its cost, product mix, and capital discipline plans, it remains a salient contender among Africa’s industrial heavyweights.
9. Oando PLC (Nigeria)
Oando PLC, a leading Nigerian indigenous energy group, posted remarkable growth in its 2024 audited results, with revenue rising 43.6% to ₦4.09 trillion(from ₦2.85 trillion in 2023). Profit before tax surged to ₦383.82 billion, while profit after tax stood at ₦220.12 billion.These gains were largely driven by Oando’s strategic acquisition of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in August 2024, which added upstream assets to its portfolio and strengthened its operational base.
The company operates across the full energy value chain: upstream, trading, and downstream operations. In upstream, Oando (through Oando Energy Resources) now commands substantial acreage, producing crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids. Its trading and marketing arm handles crude liftings and export logistics, while its downstream investments support fuel distribution and related services. In H1 2025, Oando reported ₦1.72 trillionin revenue (a 15% decline year-on-year) as trading activity cooled and realized prices softened, but upstream production volume increased by 63%. To support expansion, capital expenditure in H1 2025 rose to ₦44 billion, focused on integrating the NAOC assets, infrastructure upgrades, and production optimization.
Despite its strong positioning, Oando faces a set of risks and headwinds in 2025. The energy sector in Nigeria endures volatility from global oil price swings, foreign exchange pressures, and regulatory uncertainties under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). Oando has also been directly affected by pipeline sabotage in Bayelsa State, disrupting crude flows and necessitating rapid repair and mitigation measures. Moreover, its H1 2025 financials show that gross profit fell 28% versus the prior year, reflecting margin pressure under the revised business mix. The company also must manage integration risks from its NAOC acquisition and ensure operational efficiencies to sustain profitability.
Nonetheless, Oando’s scale, integrated value chain presence, and strategic acquisitions strengthen its claim on the industrial leaderboard in Africa in 2025. Its revenue base now rivals large industrial and energy players, and its diversified operations across upstream, trading, and downstream capture multiple revenue streams. While challenges remain, Oando’s momentum and ambition underscore its role as one of Nigeria’s, and by extension Africa’s leading industrial energy conglomerates.
8. Seplat Energy (Nigeria)
Seplat Energy Plc has emerged in 2025 as one of Nigeria’s premier indigenous energy conglomerates by revenue, thanks largely to its decisive acquisition strategy and operational ramp-up. In its FY 2024 results, Seplat reported revenues of $1,116 million, up 5 % year-on-year (FY 2023: USD 1,061 million). Its adjusted EBITDA reached $539 million, and operating profit surged to $438 million, supported by the integration of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (SEPNU) acquired in December 2024. The acquisition added substantial upstream assets and reserves to Seplat’s portfolio, elevating its standing in Nigeria’s upstream value chain.
Operationally, Seplat now operates across eleven oil and gas blocks (onshore and shallow water) in the Niger Delta region, and holds interests in export infrastructure including the Qua Iboe export terminal and Yoho FSO. The company also conducts upstream gas operations, and aims to reduce gas flaring as part of its ESG agenda. In the first half of 2025, Seplat announced that it is consolidating its enlarged portfolio and expects synergies to improve cost control, operational reliability, and capital efficiency.
In mid-2025, Seplat continues to navigate a challenging macro environment that reflects oil price volatility, exchange rate pressures, and upstream cost inflation. It recently announced plans to invest up to$3 billion over the 2026–2030 period to boost output, including drilling 120–150 new wells, expanding gas projects, and optimizing its broadened asset base. The company has set targets to reach 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd)in production by 2030, underpinning its ambition to scale further within Nigeria and potentially beyond. That goal reflects confidence in Nigeria’s upstream reform agenda, including incentive frameworks established under the Petroleum Industry Act and a push toward boosting domestic production.
Seplat’s inclusion among Africa’s top industrial conglomerates in 2025 is justified by its growing scale, asset base, and ambition to capture value across upstream oil and gas production, export infrastructure, and gas operations. Though it remains more narrowly focused on energy rather than diversification into many heavy industries, its trajectory, acquisitions, and growth plans place it among the leading revenue generators in the African energy-industrial space. Its evolution from a leading independent producer to a broader energy conglomerate also underscores the potency of domestic capital deployment in Africa’s resource sectors.
7. Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation (EIPDC) – Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC), sometimes called the Special Economic Zones of Ethiopia, has become a central instrument in the nation’s industrial policy, anchored to the goal of transforming Ethiopia into a manufacturing and export hub. Established in 2014, IPDC oversees a network of industrial parks and SEZs, such as Hawassa, Bole Lemi, Kilinto, Mekelle, Kombolcha, and others, like housing garment, textile, agro-processing, electronics, and light manufacturing firms. While IPDC itself does not publicly report consolidated revenues like a private conglomerate, its strategic influence lies in how many tenants it attracts, export throughput, and the scale of indirect economic value it unlocks across Ethiopia’s industrial and trade statistics.
The export performance from IPDC-run SEZs has shown growing contributions to Ethiopia’s total export sector in 2024/2025. During the first nine months of the 2024/25 fiscal year alone, manufacturing operations within SEZs generated about $83 million in export revenue, per statements by IPDC. Though this is a partial statistic, covering only a portion of parks, it signals ongoing momentum. Earlier, in Ethiopia’s Industrial Parks Program, firms within IPDC-managed parks (as of 2019/20) accounted for roughly 70 percent of the country’s textile and garment exports and employed over 56,000 workers. These contributions underscore how IPDC acts as a multiplier of industrial revenue, rather than being a direct revenue-reporting entity itself.
The developmental and structural role of IPDC in Ethiopia’s economy is well documented in World Bank and UNIDO analyses. The World Bank’s“On the Path to Industrialization”report highlights challenges in park connectivity, regulatory harmonization, and local supplier linkages, but stresses that IPDC is central to Ethiopia’s industrial agenda as a policy instrument to raise export earnings, attract FDI, and create jobs. UNIDO in its 2024 Industrial Development Report also references Ethiopia’s industrial parks program as a key example of state-led industrialization efforts, while pointing to the need for improved governance, infrastructure, and incentive design to unlock full potential. Indeed, IPDC’s parks have been instrumental in recruiting foreign investors, especially from China, and in converting exportable garment production projects into partially localized value chains.
Yet, the execution of this strategy is not without risks and underperformance. A critical review by media sources, basing on World Bank assessments, states that Ethiopian industrial parks have underperformed revenue expectations by as much as $0.5 billion, citing weak integration with domestic supply chains, underutilized capacity, and mismatched infrastructure investments. Some parks, despite their capacity and infrastructure have struggled to meet occupancy targets or to link local firms to anchor investors, diminishing the potential for revenue spillovers. Nevertheless, with Ethiopia’s reform momentum, growing FDI influx ($3.9 billion in FY 2023/24) and sustained policy support (including SEZ status and tax incentives), IPDC remains a foundational actor in Ethiopia’s industrial future. For the“Top African industrial conglomerates by revenue”framing in 2025, IPDC’s inclusion is justified not by its own top-line, but by its profound structural and indirect revenue influence across Ethiopia’s export, industrial, and trade performance.
6. Motus Holdings Limited (South Africa)
Motus Holdings Limited, though technically a “non-manufacturing” automotive group, is one of Africa’s largest and most integrated industrial conglomerates in the mobility ecosystem. In its 2024 fiscal year (ended 30 June 2024), the company reported revenue of ZAR 113.76 billion, with operating income of ZAR 8.31 billion and net income of ZAR 2.47 billion. This scale of operations places it among the top industrial players within South Africa and by extension on the continent. Motus maintains a diversified structure across automotive import & distribution, retail & rental, mobility (finance/insurance/fleet), and aftermarket parts, which strengthens its resilience against sectoral volatility.
The group’s operational footprint is both deep within South Africa and expanding beyond its borders. Domestically, Motus is the exclusive importer in South Africa for brands such as Hyundai, Kia, Renault, and Mitsubishi, and commands a approximately 16.9 % share of the passenger new-vehicle market. In FY24 it retailed about 82,000 new vehicles and 85,000 pre-owned vehicles across ~327 dealerships. Internationally, the company has a presence in the UK, Australia, Southeast Asia, and selected African markets via its Motus Africa arm (Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania). Motus’ logistics and parts distribution network is also global, with wholesale distribution points supporting its aftermarket operations in the UK, Europe, Asia, and South Africa.
In the half year ended 31 December 2024, Motus reported revenue of ZAR 56,175 million, representing a 2 % decline year-on-year amid challenging consumer and macro conditions, while EBITDA stood near ZAR 4,022 million. Despite these headwinds, the company increased its interim dividend by 2 % and delivered 3 % growth in headline earnings per share (HEPS) to 681 cents. The group faces pressures from inflation, interest rates, currency volatility, and constrained consumer spending but is positioning itself for recovery, with management forecasting improvements as markets normalize.
Motus’ inclusion in a list of leading African industrial conglomerates is justified by its integrated model, scale, and diversified income sources across the automotive value chain. Though it is not a pure manufacturer, its activities in importation, retail, rental, fleet services, financing, insurance, logistics, and aftermarket parts deliver a composite industrial profile. Its revenue base, strategic geographic reach, and capacity to capture value at multiple nodes in the automotive ecosystem align with the criteria for industrial leadership. In 2025, while macro risks persist across key markets, Motus is well positioned to convert scale and diversification into sustained growth among Africa’s top industrial conglomerates.
5. KAP Industrial Holdings Limited (South Africa)
KAP Industrial Holdings Limited, a Johannesburg-listed diversified industrial group, continues to assert its standing in the African industrial landscape heading into 2025. In its FY24 (year ended 30 June 2024), KAP reported revenue of approximately ZAR 29,628 million, up modestly from the prior year, reflecting moderate growth amid challenging macro conditions. The company’s operating segments include timber & panels (PG Bison), polymers (Safripol), logistics and transport (Unitrans), as well as specialist products such as bedding (Restonic), fibreboard (Feltex) and industrial print (Optix). This breadth enables KAP to mitigate cyclical pressures by balancing exposure across sectors.
KAP’s strategic investments and capital allocations in recent years underscore its ambition to deepen value capture and improve competitive positioning. In FY24, the group completed capital projects worth about ZAR 2.5 billion, aimed at expanding capacity and modernizing operations in its core units. The restructuring initiatives under Unitrans, in particular, showed early signs of turnaround, while PG Bison and Feltex divisions delivered more stable revenue contributions. The company’s integrated strategy emphasizes leveraging shared services, logistics synergies, and cross-divisional support functions (e.g. procurement, maintenance) to drive cost efficiency and margin improvement.
Still, the group has confronted headwinds in 2025 that weigh on near-term performance. KAP disclosed in mid-2025 that its headline earnings per share (HEPS) fell by 47% to 24.1 cents, citing lower operating profits, higher finance costs, and reduced tax incentives on newly commissioned projects. Moreover, in June 2025 the company flagged that headline earnings would decline further as trading conditions remain tough in key markets. These pressures stem from subdued consumer demand in South Africa, inflationary cost escalation, currency volatility, and tight capital markets, all influencing industrial groups across the region.
From a sustainability and innovation lens, KAP has sought to strengthen its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) credentials. Its 2024 integrated report spotlights renewable energy investments, carbon emissions reduction targets, and enhanced disclosure frameworks, aligning with shifting regulatory and stakeholder expectations. Business commentary also notes that the scale and diversified nature of KAP enable it to undertake complex, capital-intensive projects that smaller peers may find challenging. While 2025 may not deliver realizing of all ambitions, KAP’s strong industrial foundation, capital investments, and commitment to structural resilience merit its inclusion among Africa’s top industrial conglomerates by revenue in 2025.
4. Bidvest Group Limited (South Africa)
Bidvest Group Limited, headquartered in South Africa, stands as a formidable diversified industrial conglomerate in Africa in 2025, with operations spanning automotive, services, distribution, and consumer sectors. In its financial year ending June 30, 2025, the group reported revenue of ZAR 126.6 billion (up 4.9% from ZAR 120.7 billion in 2024), while maintaining trading profits at ZAR 12.0 billion. The group’s EBITDA was around ZAR 13.9 billion, indicating continued strength in cash-generation despite macro pressures. This financial scale places Bidvest squarely in the ranks of Africa’s top industrial operators, particularly as a South African enterprise with deep continental reach.
One of Bidvest’s strategic advantages is its portfolio diversity. It operates across divisions including Automotive; Trading & Distribution; Business Services; and Services International (including hygiene and facilities management). In recent years, it has also undertaken expansion through acquisitions and bolt-on investments, its 2024 annual report notes 11 acquisitions in that year to boost geographic footprint and value-added capabilities. In 2024 and into 2025, Bidvest has also leaned into service and solutions businesses to offset volatility in commodity or capital goods sectors, enhancing resilience in uneven economic cycles.
In 2024, Bidvest announced a strategic exit from its financial services arm, moving to divest Bidvest Bank, FinGlobal, and related insurance operations, with the process underway for regulatory approvals and asset transfers. The intent behind the exit is to sharpen focus on core industrial operations and to recycle capital toward higher-growth or higher-margin divisions. This restructuring reflects the group’s discipline in aligning its portfolio to sectors where it has operational advantages and scale synergies.
However, Bidvest faces headwinds typical of industrial conglomerates in 2025. The South African macro environment remains challenging: constrained GDP growth, currency pressure, and residual structural unemployment weigh on domestic demand. (While South Africa is not currently borrowing heavily from the World Bank, the Bank’s relationship and engagement with the country’s development agenda remain significant.) Bidvest must manage input cost inflation, logistics bottlenecks, and exchange rate exposure—especially for divisions that import components or operate cross-border. In this context, its diversified footprint, disciplined cost control, and a shift toward services and solutions rather than pure trading give it a better buffer against volatility. In sum, Bidvest’s combination of scale, diversification across sectors, and proactive restructuring help it retain a strong position among Africa’s top industrial conglomerates by revenue in 2025.
3. Sonangol (Angola)
Sonangol, formally Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola E.P., occupies a commanding position at the heart of Angola’s hydrocarbon-based economy in 2025. Although it is state-owned, its scale of activity, vertical integration, and control of Angola’s petroleum value chain put it among the top African industrial conglomerates by revenue. In 2023, Sonangol’s reported revenues stood at approximately $10.9 billion,underscoring both its dominance and the scale on which it operates. The company’s remit spans upstream exploration and production, midstream logistics and storage, downstream trading of refined products, and stakes in gas and petrochemical ventures.
Angola derives much of its fiscal and external strength from oil, making Sonangol a strategic linchpin in the national economy. Oil accounts for over 90 percent of Angola’s exports and about 60 percent of government revenues, reflecting the outsized role of the sector. In 2024, Angola’s GDP growth rebounded strongly to 4.4 percent,propelled in large part by the recovery of oil output and export earnings. The drop in refined fuel imports also supports the external account and helps stabilize foreign reserves, benefits that accrue to the national oil champion.
To maintain and expand its revenue leadership, Sonangol has pursued several strategic collaborations and investments. For instance, it continues to partner in deepwater development projects such as the Kaminho FPSO venture with TotalEnergies and Petronas, where Sonangol holds a minority position but remains deeply involved in governance and feedstock supply. The company also holds shares in Sonangol-led downstream and logistics ventures like Kwanda support services and SonaGás (gas processing), which help capture value across the mid- and downstream chain. Additionally, Sonangol is actively engaged in plans for new refining capacity, for example, in Cabinda, to reduce the country’s dependence on imports of petroleum products.
However, Sonangol’s position comes with structural challenges and risks that could compress margins or slow growth. Angola’s heavy reliance on oil revenue makes the company vulnerable to global price swings: in early 2025, oil revenues weakened, contributing to a projected widening of the fiscal deficit. Aging fields, maintenance outages, and decline curves pose upstream production risks. Moreover, while diversification is a declared priority in Angola’s economic policy, progress is gradual, meaning Sonangol continues to bear the burden of stabilizing public finances. In sum, Sonangol’s sheer scale, its integration across hydrocarbon value chains, and its central role in Angola’s macroeconomy make it a vital contender in any list of Africa’s top industrial conglomerates by revenue as of 2025.
2. Dangote Group (Nigeria)
Aliko Dangote’s flagship remains the continent’s standout African-owned industrial champion in 2025, anchored by two engines: cement and refining. While the privately held Dangote Group does not publish consolidated group revenue, its listed subsidiary, Dangote Cement, reported a 62.2% jump in FY-2024 group revenue to ₦3,580.6 billion and crossed ₦1 trillion in EBITDA for the first time, performance that underpins the Group’s scale and cash-generation heading into 2025. Dangote Cement operates across 10 African countries, reinforcing the conglomerate’s diversified, pan-African footprint and pricing power in a high-inflation environment.
The second pillar is the 650,000 barrels-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery, one of the world’s largest single-train plants, which began processing crude in January 2024 and quickly reshaped regional trade flows by turning Nigeria into a net exporter of jet fuel, naphtha, and fuel oil. Despite start-up volatility typical for mega-refineries, including outages and repairs on the gasoline (RFCC) unit in late 2025, the facility has supplied the domestic market and even sent its first gasoline cargoes to the U.S., demonstrating global competitiveness as operations ramp.
Multilateral assessments in 2024/2025 link the refinery’s ramp-up to macro gains for Nigeria. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update and related analysis highlight that replacing imports with domestic output should narrow the trade deficit and ease forex pressures as subsidy reforms take hold; the Bank’s energy price outlook also frames a supportive external environment with Brent expected to average about $73/bbl in 2025. The IMF’s 2025 Article IV statement similarly flags the new domestic refinery as a contributor to growth in 2025, while Nigeria’s central bank and other official outlooks note that increased refining reduces fuel import bills and supports external balances.
Operationally, the Group is investing across the value chain to capture downstream margins and logistics efficiencies, including thousands of new gas-powered trucks to improve nationwide fuel distribution from the refinery. On the cement side, management’s 2024–H1 2025 disclosures emphasize volume growth, disciplined pricing across 10 markets, and continuing export strategies to improve internal FX sourcing, an important hedge in Nigeria’s reform era. Together, these moves position Dangote Group near the top of Africa’s industrial revenue league table in 2025, with scale assets in cement and refining that few peers can match.
1. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd (South Africa)
Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd, South Africa’s state-owned power utility, remains a gargantuan player in Africa’s industrial economy in 2025, mainly by virtue of its sheer scale and control over almost the entire electricity value chain. In the financial year ended March 2024, Eskom recorded R 295.8 billion in revenue, an increase of about 14 % over the prior year, despite sales volumes declining slightly amid widespread load shedding and system constraints. However, the company still ended FY 2024 with a net loss after tax of R 55 billion, largely driven by a once-off accounting adjustment relating to the separation of its transmission arm (NTCSA) and a derecognition of a deferred tax asset. Its EBITDA was more resilient, growing 26 % to R 43.4 billiondespite headwinds.
In early 2025, Eskom began showing signs of a financial and operational turnaround, which is crucial for its inclusion among Africa’s top industrial conglomerates by revenue. For the six months ending 30 September 2024, Eskom reportedR 17,832 million in net profit after tax (versus a much smaller figure in the prior period), reflecting improvements in operations, demand, and tariff adjustments. The company also disclosed that its revenue in the same half year rose to R 183.71 billion, up ~15.8 % year-on-year, with profit before tax jumping to R 23.03 billion (from only R 2.24 billion in the same period in 2023). Eskom expects to return to full-year profitability in FY 2025, projecting profits in excess of R 10 billion as the balance of improved cost controls and more stable operations take hold.
Eskom’s strategic importance and industrial heft are magnified by its role as the backbone of South Africa’s economy and its centrality in regional power integration. The company provides nearly 95 % of the country’s electricity,and it is a major emitter and a focal point in the energy transition debate. The World Bank, recognizing Eskom’s critical role, backs the company’s just energy transition initiatives, including a $439.5 million loan as part of the Eskom Just Energy Transition Project (EJETP) aimed at financing cleaner generation, infrastructure upgrades, grid modernization, and decarbonization measures. Additionally, in 2025 South Africa obtained a $1.5 billion development policy loan (DPL) to support structural reforms in energy and transport infrastructure that will influence Eskom’s future path.
That said, the road ahead is fraught with risks and structural challenges. Eskom is restructuring via unbundling into separate generation, transmission, and distribution units, with the transmission arm (NTCSA) already spun off in mid-2024. It also faces pressure from nonpayment and mounting debt from municipalities, which has been flagged as a serious constraint on liquidity and cash collection. Further, Eskom contends with aging coal plants, weak plant availability (only about 54 % in 2024), high maintenance backlogs, and significant electricity theft losses. As tariffs are regulated and increases are sometimes restricted relative to Eskom’s requests, the company must balance cost recovery with affordability and political pressures.
In a comparative ranking of Africa’s industrial conglomerates by revenue in 2025, Eskom’s case is unique: it is state-owned rather than privately held, and its finances reflect deep systemic stress. Yet its dominance in the electricity sector, control over a near-monopoly, massive revenue base, and its centrality to all other industrial and economic sectors ensure that it remains an industrial heavyweight. With its evident path to improved profitability, structural reform backing, and strategic importance in South Africa’s energy transition, Eskom justifies inclusion among Africa’s top industrial enterprises by revenue and scale in 2025.
