The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has released its Bank Supervision Annual Report for 2025, revealing that 788,853 deposit accounts had balances of Sh500,000 or more by December 2025. This represents a 5.6% increase from 746,665 accounts recorded in December 2024. The number of accounts with high balances has been steadily increasing, with over 42,000 more accounts added in 2025.
In contrast to the growth in higher-balance accounts, the overall number of accounts holding less than Sh500,000 recorded a significant decline. According to CBK figures, such accounts decreased from nearly 117 million in December 2024 to slightly above 83 million at the close of 2025. This reduction amounts to almost 34 million accounts in one year, with KCB Bank Kenya Ltd experiencing the largest change.
KCB's accounts with balances below Sh500,000 fell from about 53.6 million to roughly 12.2 million between December 2024 and December 2025, representing a drop of more than 41 million accounts. This sharp decline is larger than the overall decline recorded across the banking industry. The reasons behind this significant change are not explicitly stated in the CBK report.
Several major lenders, including NCBA Bank Kenya, Co-operative Bank, and Absa, recorded increases in accounts holding less than Sh500,000. NCBA Bank Kenya had the largest number of accounts below the Sh500,000 threshold, with 36.3 million accounts. KCB, Equity Bank, Co-operative Bank, and Absa followed among the five commercial banks with the highest total number of accounts.
The CBK report puts the combined number of deposit accounts held in commercial banks and microfinance banks at 84,111,829 as of December 2025. Accounts containing Sh500,000 or more accounted for just under one per cent of the total. The figures should not be read as a count of individual Kenyans with at least Sh500,000 in savings, as CBK's data is based on bank accounts rather than individual customers.
A single customer, including a business, can maintain several accounts either within one institution or across different banks. Consequently, the 788,853 accounts with balances of Sh500,000 and above do not mean an equal number of people or businesses had that amount in the bank. The account figures are part of CBK's monitoring of access to banking services and financial inclusion in the country.
The sharp change in account numbers, particularly in KCB's reported figures, leaves questions over how the accounts were recorded between the two reporting periods. The CBK report does not give a detailed explanation for the shift, leaving room for speculation about the reasons behind the significant decline in lower-balance accounts.
Key points
- The number of Kenyan bank accounts with Sh500,000 or more increased by 5.6% to 788,853 in 2025.
- Accounts with less than Sh500,000 declined by almost 34 million in 2025.
- KCB Bank Kenya Ltd experienced a significant decline of over 41 million accounts with balances below Sh500,000.
