Big milestone for Anne Juuko who is the only Ugandan named on Africa.com’s 2023 Definitive List of Women CEOs

Stanbic Bank Chief Executive, Anne Juuko, is the only Ugandan named on the Africa.com 2023 Definitive List of Women CEOs.

The data-driven list recognizes women who are leading large businesses that are also listed on one of Africa’s stock exchanges with a revenue of over $100 million, or a market cap of over $150 million.

The Africa.com list is compiled over many months through a deep research effort, starting with data provided by Bloomberg on all the listed companies in Africa.  From there, the research team culled the data to meet the required size requirements, and then further determined which of those companies had women at the head.

The list also includes women who lead divisions of listed companies, such that the division would qualify for the list were it a standalone entity, and the women who lead the Africa region for globally listed companies, such that the region would qualify for the list were it a standalone entity.

Anne Juuko is ranked 21^st on the 40-person list, leading Stanbic Bank Uganda with reported revenue of $ 267 million. The list is topped by Natascha Viljoen, CEO of Anglo-American Plc with Revenue of $ 41.6 billion.

Anne Juuko said: “It’s such an honour to be recognized alongside other celebrated women leaders on our continent, for the third time in a row. It’s an honour because Uganda has hundreds of brilliant, hardworking women who are breaking the proverbial glass ceiling, every day, in their respective fields of practice. Many of them, I know personally, as they are my colleagues at work and in the financial services sector where I have been active for the last two decades.

So, allow me to say that this recognition is not mine alone but one that I wish to accept, on behalf of my fellow women at Stanbic Uganda with whom we give our very best, daily, to make a difference in our country and to also give the African girl child the confidence and reason to believe that whatever they seek to become—it can be.”

In East Africa, Kenya has two women on the list including Jane Karuku Group Managing Director & CEO East African Breweries in 8th place with revenue of $ 970 million, and Nasim Devji, Group CEO & Managing Director Diamond Trust, in 14th place and revenue of $ 370 million.

Tanzania and Rwanda each have one woman on the list, including Ruth Zaipuna CEO of NMB Bank Plc with revenue of $485 million, and Bank of Kigali’s Diane Karusisi in 24^th place with revenue of $ 218 million.

Recognition is key

Harvard Business Review reports on the startling lack of diversity among CEOs of big business.  To be the CEO of a large, listed company in Africa is an extreme rarity for women, which is why recognizing them is so important.  Research by Harvard Business School faculty recognizes one important factor that all the women who reach the CEO spot have in common: resilience.

“In simple terms, the answer to the question of what it takes [for these women] to succeed can be reduced to a single capacity: resilience…women we interviewed seemed to rely more heavily than others on that quality, because of the frequency with which they encountered obstacles and setbacks resulting from the intersecting dynamics of race, gender, and other identities.”  Harvard Business Review

To mark the evolution of Africa.com’s Definitive List of Women CEOs, now in its third year, Africa.com researched and analyzed 2,020 listed companies on Africa’s 24 stock exchanges. The companies were screened for revenue of $100 million or more, or a market cap of $150 million or more, which yielded a list of 787 companies.

The public websites of these 787 companies were examined to determine those women who have a title of chief executive officer or managing director or president AND to confirm that these executives have bottom line, profit, and loss responsibility.

This work represents one of the first analyses of the performance of publicly listed companies in Africa conducted through a gender lens.  The research, shared with the world on April 19th at the virtual reveal of the star performers on Africa.com’s 2023 Definitive List of Women CEOs.