(Business in Cameroon) - Nine Cameroonian companies made the list of the top 500 African companies recently published by the pan-African weekly publication, Jeune Afrique. Among the nine countries, five are in energy, two are in telecommunications and one is in agro-foods.

On the “500” list, Cameroon’s energy sector is represented by Société nationale de raffinage (Sonara), ranked number one in the Central African sub-region; the National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH), second in the sub-region, the electricity production and distribution company, AES and Tradex, the SNH subsidiary specialised in trading and oil product distribution.

Telecommunications is also on the list, represented by MTN and Orange Cameroon, Cameroon’s two mobile telephone operators, while Société anonyme des Brasseries du Cameroun, a local subsidiary of Castel, is the only agro-foods company to make the list.

This predominance of companies from the Cameroonian energy sector is apparent throughout the rankings as the two top African companies are Algeria’s Sonatrach and Angola’s Sonangol, both hydrocarbon giants in Africa.