Africa: MTN retains title of Africa’s most valuable brand

South Africa’s MTN has retained the title of Africa’s most valuable brand, despite recording a 19% drop in brand value to US$2.7 billion. This is according to the Brand Finance Africa 150 2021 report.

On home soil, the telecoms giant also continues to dominate, holding onto its decade-long reign as South Africa’s most valuable brand, as revealed in the Brand Finance South Africa 50 2021 report.

It has been a turbulent year for MTN, however, with the brand facing several scandals from its money mobile services been hacked in Uganda, to being accused of price discrimination practices alongside telecoms rival and second-ranked Vodacom (brand value down 16% to US$1.7 billion).

MTN has also begun to scale down its operations, announcing its exit from the Middle East, in order to focus and build further across Africa.

Despite this, according to the Brand Finance Global Brand Equity Monitor, MTN is ranked 3^rd among consumers for “Popularity with friends and family”, 4^th for “Cool” and 4^th for “Accessible anywhere and anytime”.

With the recent appointment of Ralph Mupita to the helm as CEO, as well as the successful launch of its 5G network across major South African cities, MTN will hope to use these developments as a springboard to capture some of its lost brand value moving forward, says the report.