Kenya's biggest banks haven't lost money in five years, and most small businesses never ask them for a loan
TechCabal went through five years of audited results from Kenya's tier-1 banks looking for a bad year and found none. Their combined pre-tax profit reached KES 260.09 billion in 2024 and KES 305.95 billion in 2025, up 17.6%. NCBA's profit after tax grew 409% from 2020 to KES 23.4 billion last year. Part of the reason is where the money goes: by late 2024 government securities made up 27.8% of banking assets and the loan-to-deposit ratio had fallen to 70.1%, while non-performing loans reached 16.4% of the book in December 2024. Banks did lend KES 326.5 billion to small businesses in 2025, more than 73% of it without collateral, but women-led businesses, 46% of borrowers, got 25% of the credit. A 2026 Kenya Bankers Association paper suggests the bigger gap is at the door: about three-quarters of small firms that could use financing never apply, expecting rejection or high costs, while more than 90% of those that apply are approved. The growth is in small, automatic credit. Fuliza, which Safaricom runs with NCBA and KCB, lent KES 1.16 trillion in the six months to September, up 84%, recovered 99.6% of it through M-PESA deductions, and earned Safaricom KES 4.9 billion, up 86%. Its borrowers rose 88.9% to 17.2 million, and the average advance fell to KES 192. If you run a business, the data says applying is worth it more often than people think.
Sources: TechCabal
