Six women running some of East Africa’s best-known companies have secured places on Africa.com’s 2026 Definitive List of Women CEOs. Between them, their businesses generated close to $4 billion in revenue. They lead brewers, banks and a major telecoms operator across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
The list is now in its sixth year and is compiled from Bloomberg data. Africa.com’s researchers screened more than 1,500 companies across the continent’s stock exchanges to find women holding the top executive role at large listed businesses. They then widened the search to women leading major divisions and the African operations of global multinationals. The list was unveiled in a livestreamed event in late August, with FNB and RMB as sponsors. South Africa’s Mary Vilakazi took the top spot.
Jane Karuku, East African Breweries PLC (Kenya). Group Managing Director and CEO of the region’s biggest brewer, ranked ninth on the list, with revenue of about $995 million.
Ruth Zaipuna, NMB Bank (Tanzania). Managing Director and CEO of one of Tanzania’s leading lenders, ranked tenth, with about $857 million.
Sylvia Mulinge, MTN Uganda. CEO of the telecoms operator, ranked eleventh, with about $845 million.
Michelle Kilpin, Tanzania Breweries. Managing Director of the company, with about $563 million.
Nasim Devji, Diamond Trust Bank (Kenya). Group CEO of the bank, with about $534 million.
Ethel Emma-Uche, Bralirwa (Rwanda). Managing Director of the brewer, with about $165 million.
Added together, the six revenue figures come to roughly $3.96 billion.
The spread of sectors is part of the story. Brewing, banking and telecommunications are among the most visible, high-volume industries in the region, and women now lead the companies at the centre of each of them. Two of the six, Karuku and Devji, are also long-standing names on this ranking and appeared on earlier editions, which suggests staying power as well as new entrants.
The ranking has limits. Revenue measures scale, not performance or impact, and some women on the list lead local units of larger groups, so the figures don’t always compare like with like. East Africa’s showing is also wider than these six. The list includes other women in the region, among them Diane Karusisi, CEO of Rwanda’s Bank of Kigali.
East Africa’s six sit within a continental list that spans banking, insurance, mining, brewing, retail, healthcare and real estate. Nigerian readers will recognise Dr. Adaora Umeoji of Zenith Bank, who ranks sixth overall with about $2.83 billion in revenue, and Yemisi Edun of FCMB Group, who ranks twelfth.
The harder question is how far this visibility extends. Women remain a small share of the chief executives of listed African companies, and a list of the top performers says little about the pipeline behind them. What it does offer is a data-led record of who is leading today, and proof that the role of chief executive at a large African company is no longer out of reach for women.
