The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has approved the transfer of all business, assets and liabilities of Access Bank (Kenya) Plc to National Bank of Kenya Limited (NBK). Nigeria’s Access Bank PLC owns both lenders.
CBK approved the transfer on 17 August 2026 under Section 13(4) of the Banking Act. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi followed on 21 September under Section 9(1). CBK announced both approvals on 23 September.
The transfer takes effect when the parties complete the transaction under the terms of their Business and Assets Transfer Agreement. The release gives no completion date and no transaction value. It also does not say what happens to Access Bank Kenya’s licence, branches or customer accounts.
CBK cites stability and competition
The regulator said the deal will keep the banking sector stable, strengthen its resilience and promote competition.
How one Nigerian lender came to own both banks
Access Bank PLC entered Kenya in February 2020 by buying 100 percent of Transnational Bank, which began operations in December 1985. It renamed the lender Access Bank (Kenya) Plc and launched it in November 2020 with 28 branches.
NBK started in 1968 as a government entity meant to widen Kenyans’ access to credit after independence. KCB Group bought all its shares in September 2019, then agreed in March 2024 to sell it to Access Bank.
The Competition Authority of Kenya cleared that sale in October 2024. It required Access Bank to keep at least 80 percent of NBK’s 1,384 staff for one year and all 316 Access Bank Kenya employees, Khusoko reported. CBK and the National Treasury approved the share purchase in April 2025. Access Bank completed it in May 2025, and KCB’s sale of NBK trimmed its balance sheet growth that year.
Access Holdings’ half year statements to 30 June 2025 put the price at USD 109.6 million (KSh 14.2 billion).
Integration moves from shares to the balance sheet
Access Bank chief executive Roosevelt Ogbonna said when the share purchase closed that the bank would merge NBK with Access Bank Kenya to create “one of the top banks in Kenya”. The Kenya Times reports that the two lenders have kept operating separately while integration work continues.
Access Bank PLC, incorporated in February 1989, holds subsidiaries across Africa, including in Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. It also runs a subsidiary in the United Kingdom, representative offices in China, India and Lebanon, and a branch in the United Arab Emirates.
The next signal is the completion date under the transfer agreement. CBK’s release does not give one.
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