{"id":38273,"date":"2026-06-29T07:42:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=38273"},"modified":"2026-06-29T07:42:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:42:43","slug":"african-banks-in-hot-pursuit-of-kenyas-profits-face-tough-local-rivals","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/african-banks-in-hot-pursuit-of-kenyas-profits-face-tough-local-rivals\/","title":{"rendered":"African banks in hot pursuit of Kenya&#8217;s profits face tough local rivals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\">African banks including Egypt&#8217;s Commercial International Bank, Nigeria&#8217;s Access Bank and South Africa&#8217;s Nedbank are \u200bseeking to expand in Kenya, but competition from the country&#8217;s entrenched domestic lenders is limiting their returns.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Kenya&#8217;s appeal lies in its gateway role \u200cto the East African Community, a fast\u2011growing bloc expanding by at least 5% a year.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8220;It becomes hugely, hugely attractive,&#8221; said Kenny Fihla, Chief Executive Officer of South Africa&#8217;s Absa Bank which said last week it is increasing its stake in its Kenyan business to as much as 85% through a tender offer.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">African banks have been busy dealmaking as global giants such as Standard Chartered and Society General exit \u200bsmaller markets to focus on core ones such as Kenya, while a growing need to invest in technology has prompted deals to gain scale.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">However, it \u200btakes time to achieve growth in Kenya&#8217;s crowded banking sector, which central bank data showed produced some $2 billion in annual pretax \u2060profit in 2024, as incumbents including Equity Group and KCB Group leverage large customer bases, regional reach and strong mobile platforms.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38274,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-38273","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Egypt's Commercial International Bank, Nigeria's Access Bank and SA's Nedbank are \u200bseeking to expand in Kenya","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38275,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/38273\/revisions\/38275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=38273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}