Kenya banks cashing in on cross-border regional units to prop bottom-line

Kenya’s KCB Bank

Customers being served at a KCB branch in Nairobi, Kenya. PHOTO | SIMON MAINA | AFP

Kenya’s largest retail banks are relying on regional subsidiaries to prop up weakening profit numbers, whose growth has slowed to single digit in the past nine months, signalling a tough operating environment especially in the local market.

KCB, Equity and Co-operative, which jointly serve close to 60 million customers through a network of 1,151 branches in the region, have seen their average growth in net profit decelerate.