Introduction - 16th Edition


The ranking of the top 100 companies was carried out using two broad criteria; eligibility criteria and ranking criteria. The eligibility criteria determine which company qualifies to be ranked and the ranking criteria were used to ascertain the scores and subsequently position of the companies ranked.


As part of the application process companies were required to submit the following documentation:

  1. 3 year audited financial statement i.e. 2014, 2015, 2016
  2. Business Registration Certificate issued by the Registrar General’s Department, as proof that the company is registered and recognized in Ghana
  3. Tax clearance Certificate issued by GRA, as evidence that the company is meeting its tax obligations to the country and,
  4. SSNIT Clearance Certificate, as evidence that the participating company is fulfilling its mandatory obligation of contributing to securing the future of its employees.

Companies that met these requirements progressed to the next phase of the process, which is the Ranking.

The GC 100 companies were ranked using three main criteria namely; size, growth and profitability


This was measured using the company’s turnover for the relevant ranking year (2016). Turnover for the banks was measured by gross interest income plus commissions and fees, while turnover for insurance companies was by net premium earned plus investment income. For all other companies turnover was measured by the revenue for that period. For the purposes of this ranking the company with the highest turnover for a particular period was used as benchmark for assessing other companies. Thus all companies’ turnover was expressed as a percentage of the turnover of the largest company. This was to rebase the scores for this criterion.


A universally accepted measure of profitability is the ReIturn on Equity(ROE). This indicates the return that management has created for the shareholders of the company. For the purposes of the ranking, this was measured by the 3 year average ROE for the relevant years; for instance 2014, 2015 and 2016 for the 2016 ranking period. The company with the highest 3 year average ROE was expressed as a percentage of that. This was to rebase the scores so that all the scores will be within 100%.


This gives recognition to companies that are growing at impressive rates. Such companies are usually growing because of excellence in product development, marketing and effective management. This was measured using the 3 year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of turnover over the relevant period.

Similarly the company with the highest CAGR was used as basis for rebasing the scores.


The participating companies were ranked on the three criteria namely size, profitability and growth. A weighted score was calculated by applying specific weights to a company’s score on each criterion. The table below shows the ranking criteria and the specific weights assigned.

Ranking Criteria

Assigned Weight







Based on the above weights the overall score of a company in the 2016 GC 100 was obtained by totaling the company’s weighted average score for all three criteria. The companies were then ranked based on their total scores. This implies that a company must perform well in all three criteria as performing well on a criterion will not guarantee that a company emerges overall winner.