Key highlights:
- •Wall Street Africa Group’s inaugural banking sector report shows that FY2025 marked the end of easy earnings for Kenyan banks.
- •FY2026 now set to test which institutions can sustain performance in a lower-rate, tighter-margin environment.
- •Zenith Bank’s acquisition of Paramount, Access Bank’s acquisition of NBK, and Nedbank’s move into NCBA all confirm that Tier-1 Nigerian and South African banks view Kenya as a core strategic market.
NAIROBI, 9 April 2026: Business intelligence company Wall Street Africa Group, the parent company of The Kenyan Wall Street, has launched its inaugural Kenya Banking Sector Report [Link].
Wall Street Africa’s analysis of FY2025 banking results shows that that was the year the tailwinds stopped. The FY26 question is simpler: which banks grew their loan books fast enough to offset the yield compression, and which ones didn’t? ABSA’s ROaA of 4.4% and Equity’s 26.4% ROaE are not flukes; they reflect income models that held up when the tailwinds reversed.
Kenya’s thriving banking sector is in the midst of several transitions, with a new central bank benchmark pricing, unprecedented successive rate cuts, and heightened geopolitical and macroeconomic risks. The change in regulatory goals to build better capitalised banks has triggered fervent mergers and acquisitions that are set to redefine the sector in the coming years.
“The 2025 financial year closed out roughly two years of tailwind-driven earnings in Kenyan banking. From mid-2023 through early 2024, the combination of high rates and FX volatility masked underlying operational realities. Banks didn’t need to be particularly well-run; the favourable macroeconomic environment filled the gap,” Ndegwa Mbuthia, Wall Street Africa’s Head of Business Intelligence, said on the eve of the report’s launch in Nairobi.
“Wall Street Africa Group’s inaugural banking sector report shows that FY2025 marked the end of easy earnings for Kenyan banks, with FY2026 now set to test which institutions can sustain performance in a lower-rate, tighter-margin environment,” Ndegwa added.
Whether the market has priced that in is a separate question; KCB has a credible NPL recovery path; StanChart’s pension charge normalises; Stanbic’s ROaA slide is the most important number to track. The sector is repricing itself, and the Nedbank/NCBA transaction at 1.4× book is the reference point against which every other valuation will be measured.
Download the FY2025 Kenya Banking Sector Report (PDF) →
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About Wall Street Africa Group:
Headquartered in Nairobi, Wall Street Africa Group is a business intelligence company connecting African capital to global markets and vice versa. Through our platforms like The Kenyan Wall Street, we provide trusted financial news, data, and insights while building tools that empower investors, institutions, and policymakers across the continent.
In addition, we are developing innovative products such as ETFs and creating pathways for global institutions to access Africa’s fixed income, equities, and other financial instruments — and enabling African capital to reach global opportunities. https://www.wallstreet.africa
About The Kenyan Wall Street:
The Kenyan Wall Street (TKWS) is a digital integrated content platform providing in-depth business and financial news across Sub-Saharan Africa & the globe. The Kenyan Wall Street is the flagship publication of the Wall Street Africa Group (WSA Group).
Founded in 2015 as a simple Twitter account focusing on Kenya’s publicly-traded companies, TKWS has evolved into a highly respected business publisher in Kenya covering everything impacting the financial lives of businesses and citizens alike.
