CEO EAST AFRICA MAGAZINE RANKING: Uganda’s 100 Most Trusted and Respected Companies 2024 We have all heard about corporate reputation⏤ the overall estimation in which an entity is held by its internal and external stakeholders based on its past actions and or stated intentions and the probability of its future behaviour.

Corporate reputation is an aggregate of public perceptions about an organisation’s social, political, ethical and business behaviour and how people engage with that organisation based on these perceptions. Ultimately, this reputation is the reason internal and external stakeholders,  will buy into that particular organisation’s vision, mission & strategic objectives and therefore give their unconditional support. This is the reason customers will buy that organisation’s products and services and feel confident about recommending them to others. 

There are two major elements to reputation⏤ trust and respect. 

Trust, which is the confidence that stakeholders have in an organisation, is built out of being and or producing products that are consistently reliable and of high quality/value, being transparent as well as being ethical and of high integrity. Respect, on the other hand, is born out of treating stakeholders fairly and being socially responsible.

Both trust and respect are built on doing the right things, the right way and letting the right people know (awareness).

Trusted and respected companies are known to enjoy higher levels of brand loyalty, employee retention, and investor confidence and ultimately do perform financially better than their peers.

To further get an understanding on corporate reputation CEO East Africa Magazine, early this year sought to understand who are some of Uganda’s most trusted and respected companies as well as get deeper insights into what exactly goes into the making of that trust and respect.

To arrive at the list of the 100 most trusted and respected companies, we carried out two rounds of online surveys. Altogether we engaged 1,071 respondents online⏤ 57.24% male and 42.76% female.

The 2-in-1 CEO East Africa Magazine’s Most Trusted and Respected Companies & The Most Admired CEOs in Uganda Survey 2024 also sought to discover who are Uganda’s most admired business leaders.

The list of the most admired CEOs will also be published this week.

43.45% of the respondents in the survey, reported that they were between the ages of 31 to 40, while 27.59% were above 40 years. 

The majority of respondents reported that they were at the senior management/exco level (37.24%), while 33.79% were either at the CEO/Managing Director/General Manager/Executive Director or Founder/Shareholder and Board Director levels. 

19.31% of the respondents reported they worked in the professional services & consulting⏤ legal, advertising, accounting, auditing and HR sectors, while 15.17% were in banking & finance and 13.1% were in insurance (general & life insurance, brokerage & re-insurance) and pensions (13.1%). The healthcare⏤ pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, hospitals, pharmacy chains as well as not-for-profits, NGOs and social enterprise categories, each had 6.21% of the respondents while manufacturing⏤ consumer goods, personal care accounted for 4.83% and Information And Communication Technology (tech consulting, data centres, tower companies, and computer software) accounted for 4.14%. Manufacturing⏤ food & beverages had 3.45% of the respondents, similar to retail, distribution, shopping & e-commerce as well as building & construction, real estate and engineering.

What are the most trusted and respected companies in Uganda made of? 

In the first round of the survey, based on a certain set of established qualities of a trusted and respected company/organisation criteria, we asked respondents to rate what, of these qualities, they considered as very important, important and least important in determining trust and respect.

These qualities included customer-centricity, quality of products/services, being a good employer, transparency, financial performance, corporate purpose, innovation and thought leadership, ESG as well as local content (Buy Uganda and Build Uganda).

Based on how respondents score the importance of these qualities, a weight-based ranking was developed for the various qualities.

Accordingly, respondents thought that high-quality products, that offer good value for money are the strongest determinants of trust and respect with a weight of 96.33%. 

Customer centricity⏤ putting customers’ needs first, quick problem resolution and being easy to do business with came second at 96%, tying with openness, transparency and the ability to manage business ethically and with integrity, in compliance with local regulations.

In the third place is being a good employer that creates a great place to work with equal opportunity and an employer that rewards employees fairly at 95.67%. 

Having a sound vision and strategy (corporate purpose) came fourth at 93.67%), followed by financial performance with strong shareholder value at 93%. 

Being innovative and a thought leader, with strong and capable people came in 6th at 92.33% followed by Health, Safety, Security, Environment and Quality (HSSEQ) leadership at 89.67%. 

Good corporate citizenry came eighth at 88.67% while Buy Uganda, Build Uganda⏤ having a strong Ugandan presence, embracing local content/talent and investing in and creating real opportunities for local people and local enterprises came in last at 83%.

Having established the important determinants of trust and respect, respondents were asked to mention at least 3 companies across various industries that they trusted and respected based on those qualities.

From this first round, a list of companies in each of the sectors was then developed based on a set threshold of weights.

In the second round of the survey, respondents were asked to re-rank the various companies that emerged as the most respected in their respective industry categories. These rankings were then weighted, to determine a more comprehensive and cross-sector list of the 100 most trusted and respected companies in Uganda.

Who are Uganda’s most trusted and respected companies?

Overall, CJ’s (Cafe Javas) emerged as the most trusted and respected company in Uganda with an overall score of 91.2%, closely followed by Coca-Cola Beverages Uganda at 90.4% in the second position.

In the third position is telecommunications giant, MTN Uganda, at 86.65%. In the fourth position is the fintech subsidiary of MTN Uganda⏤ MTN Mobile Money Uganda (MTN MoMo) which scored 86.33%). 

Cement makers, Hima Cement Limited scored 82.67% to settle in the 5th position, followed by TotalEnergies (Marketing) at 81.2% in the 6th position. 

Uganda Breweries, a Diageo Company, came in the 7th position with a score of 80%, followed by TotalEnergies (E&P) with 79.55% in the 8th position.

Kansai Plascon Uganda, at 79% is the 9th most trusted and respected company while Stanbic Bank came in the 10th position with a score of 78.4%.

The full list of the 100 most respected companies is below.

UAP Old Mutual General Insurance emerged as the leader in the general insurance category while UAP Old Mutual Life emerged at the top of the life insurance companies. Minet Uganda emerged as the leader in the insurance broking category. 

Stanbic Bank emerged as the most trusted and respected bank in Uganda, while MTN Uganda topped the telcos category.

In the IT companies category, Sybyl Ltd emerged leader while MTN MoMo led the fintechs category. Mukwano Industries led the consumer goods and personal care categoty while Uganda Breweries emerged as leaders in the alcoholic beverages category.

Coca-Cola Beverages Uganda is the most trusted and respected non-alcoholic beverages company; while Jesa Farm Diary leads in the food manufacturing category, while Roofings Limited is the most trusted and respected steel company. 

Hima Cement led the cement category and Kansai Plascon, led in the paints category.

In the healthcare services (hospitals) category, Nakasero Hospital carried the day while Quality Chemical Industries led the pharmaceuticals category. Friecca Pharmacy is the most trusted and respected pharmacy while TotalEnergies (E&P) emerged as the most trusted and respected player in the oil and gas category (upstream) while its sister company, TotalEnergies (Marketing) led in the downstream category. 

Umeme Limited is the most respected electricity company and Kampala Serena Hotel leads in the hotels category. 

CJ’s led the fast food/ restaurant companies while Emirates leads the airlines category.

Chobe Safari Lodge led the tourist lodges category and Great Lakes Safaris emerged as the most trused and respected tour and travel company.

In the Retail, Distribution, Shopping and e-Commerce category, Capital Shoppers emerged as the leader.

AF Mpanga emerged as the most respected and trusted law firm while Fenon Entertainment leads in the Professional Services and Consulting⏤ Advertising, Communications & Events Management category. 

KPMG Uganda emerged as the most respected Accounting & Auditing firm while in the HR Consulting/Recruitment category, PwC Uganda emerged as the most respected. 

DHL Logistics is the most respected company in the Transport, Logistics and Mobility category and CFAO Motors (Uganda) Limited in the Automotive sector. 

National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is the most trusted and respected government agency, while Nation Media Group leads in the media companies category.

MasterCard Foundation leads in the Not-For-Profit/NGOs and Social Enterprises category.