Number of bank accounts in Kenya holding over Ksh500K revealed

Kenya's banking industry reported that only 788,853 accounts held balances of Ksh500,000 or more at year-end 2025, marking a 5.6% increase from the previous year's 746,665. However, the staggering number of low-balance accounts, those with less than Ksh500,000, dropped dramatically from nearly 117 million to 83 million within the same period, a decrease of almost 34 million accounts.

KCB Bank Kenya Ltd was the primary contributor to this decline, with its low-balance account numbers falling from around 53.6 million to just 12.2 million, accounting for more than 41 million accounts lost to the sector. Other major banks, such as NCBA, Co-operative Bank, and Absa, added low-balance accounts during the same timeframe, suggesting that KCB's decline was the predominant factor in the national total.

The Central Bank of Kenya's annual report does not provide an explanation for this significant shift, leaving the reason potentially unexplained. Despite this, the total deposit accounts across commercial banks and microfinance banks reached 84,111,829 by December 2025, with just under 1% holding Ksh500,000 or more. NCBA Bank Kenya led with 36.3 million low-balance accounts, while KCB, Equity Bank, Co-operative Bank, and Absa rounded out the top five in terms of total account numbers.

Analysts emphasize that these figures represent accounts, not individual people, so the actual number of Kenyans with over half a million shillings banked is likely to be smaller than 788,853, as many high-net-worth individuals and businesses hold multiple accounts across different institutions.