Author: David Indeje

Sidian Bank delivered the strongest financial result in 2025, with net profit surging 502 percent to Sh1.73 billion from Sh287 million a year earlier, a sixfold jump driven by a wholesale transformation of its deposit base and a sharp pivot toward government securities. FY2025 Key Financial Results FY 2024 FY 2025 Change INCOME Net interest income Sh2.87B Sh4.43B +54.6% Non-interest income Sh1.73B Sh3.80B +119.7%   — Other income Sh189M Sh2.09B +1,007%   — Fees & commissions Sh805M Sh1.09B +35.4%   — FX trading income Sh322M Sh192M -40.3% Interest income — govt. paper Sh2.10B Sh4.51B +115.0% Total operating income Sh4.60B Sh8.24B…

A Nairobi High Court judge has ruled that a registered mobile phone number constitutes a digital identifier protected under the right to privacy, and ordered the government to stop the arbitrary recycling of deactivated numbers, a practice that has stripped prisoners of their digital identities while serving sentences. Justice Lawrence Mugambi of the Milimani High Court delivered the judgment on 19 March 2026 in Constitutional Petition No. E290 of 2024, filed by two prisoners serving 20-year sentences for murder. The Case: What the Prisoners Argued The petition was filed by Erastus Ngura Odhiambo and a second petitioner who had been…

Africa is no longer a footnote in global strategy. It is the main event and the world’s three biggest economic powers know it. On 19 March 2026, Nick Checker, the U.S. State Department’s Senior Bureau Official for Africa, stood before the Powering Africa Summit in Washington and delivered the clearest articulation yet of the Trump administration’s approach to the continent. The message was transactional, unapologetic, and revealing. “The United States is resetting its relationship with Africa based on mutually beneficial partnerships,” Checker said, “rather than aid, dependency, and spreading divisive ideology.” Gone is the language of development assistance. In its…

Equity Group Holdings Plc has shattered its own records, reporting a 55% surge in profit after tax to KSh75.5 billion for the full year ended December 2025, up from KSh48.8 billion the previous year. The result is the largest annual profit ever reported by a Kenyan company, a multi-year transformation from a domestic retail bank into a diversified, pan-African financial services group. A Balance Sheet Built for Scale BALANCE SHEET Metric FY2025 FY2024 Change Total assets KSh 1.97tn KSh 1.80tn +9% Customer deposits KSh 1.46tn KSh 1.40tn +4% Net loans KSh 882.5bn KSh 819.2bn +8% Customer accounts 22.4 million —…

KCB Group, Kenya’s largest bank by assets, is awaiting regulatory approval to acquire a stake in regional payments firm Pesapal as it moves to expand merchant payments across East Africa. Chief Executive Paul Russo disclosed the planned transaction during an investor briefing in Nairobi, where the bank outlined its next phase of growth investments. “We are waiting for regulatory approval to complete the acquisition,” Russo said. The Pesapal deal follows KCB’s completed acquisition of Riverbank Solutions, approved by regulators. Together, the two transactions signal a deliberate push by the bank into the technology infrastructure that sits beneath everyday business transactions.…

Centum Investment Company Plc has completed the sale of its remaining 50% stake in Bakki Holdco Limited, drawing a definitive line under a banking investment that spanned more than two decades, multiple failed transactions, and a hard-won exit strategy. Bakki Holdco was the holding vehicle through which Centum maintained a 27.2% indirect interest in Sidian Bank. With regulatory approvals secured from both the Central Bank of Kenya and the Competition Authority of Kenya, Bakki will cease to be a Centum subsidiary. The buyer has not been disclosed, though Centum expects to book a modest gain above the KSh 1.0 billion…