Natalie Cowling
Research Expert South Africa
Banking industry in Kenya - statistics & facts
Bank assets in Kenya reached a little over six trillion Kenyan shillings, around 50 billion U.S. dollars, in 2021. An increment in loans and advances, the main component of the Kenyan bank's balance sheet, drove an 11 percent growth in the sector's assets. Increased investments in government securities and other investments also contributed to the assets volume expansion, which has kept an ascendant trend throughout the last decade.
A diversified banking sector
As of 2022, 39 commercial banks had operations in Kenya. Among the financial institutions with permission to operate in the country, local private banks were in higher number, 20. Kenya had other 17 foreign institutions and two local public banks as of the same year. Bank branches totaled 1,475, a little more than in 2021. Considering the country's population, the proportion of commercial bank branches has declined since 2015. That year, Kenya had nearly 5.6 branches per 100,000 adults. In 2019, the ratio fell to 4.65 branches per 100,000 adult population.Meet the big players
Nine commercial banks had a market share of around 75 percent of the Kenyan bank industry in 2021. Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Equity Bank ranked as the country's major institutions, each with 14 percent in the banking market. Both also ranked high in terms of assets and tier 1 capital. Equity Bank's capital reached 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, while that from KCB amounted to 1.38 billion U.S. dollars. Additionally, the institutions concentrated together around one-third of the total bank deposits.Increasing banked population
Four out of 10 adults in Kenya used banking services in 2021. Bank usage has increased from only 14 percent in 2006. Access to banks varied, however, according to gender and educational qualification: Men and individuals with higher levels of formal education were more likely to perform banking operations. In general, formal access to financial services in Kenya has reached roughly 84 percent as of 2021, against 27 percent in 2006, mainly due to mobile banking and mobile money.
