The number of bank accounts holding more than Sh500,000 in Kenya increased by 5.7 percent last year to 781,977 as of December 2025, from 739,803 a year earlier. This growth comes amid rising income inequality, as top earners and firms increased their savings. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows that this increase reversed a decline of 2,753 accounts reported between 2023 and 2024.
The growth in high-value accounts occurred in a year when Kenya's economy grew at a slower pace of 4.6 percent, down from 4.7 percent in 2024. The share of high-quality depositors accounted for 0.97 percent of all 80.68 million bank accounts. This offers insight into Kenya's growing income inequality, where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small segment of the population.
Kenya's economy has grown on average by 5.0 percent annually over the past decade, but the benefits have not been equally distributed. The gap between the rich and the poor is rising, according to analysts. The number of super-rich in Kenya is among the fastest-growing in Africa, yet the economic benefits have not trickled down to the majority of citizens quickly enough.
Banks' high-value accounts are split between a few wealthy individuals and a combination of private and public enterprises, pension funds, and fund managers. The share of high-value accounts would have been smaller had the total number of deposit accounts not fallen from 114.24 million in 2024, following a clean-up of inactive accounts. More people are also opting to open transactional accounts via digital and mobile platforms.
Mobile banking accounts allow users easier access to credit and savings facilities from banks, adding to their growing popularity. NCBA, Equity Bank, and KCB remained the banks with the largest number of deposit accounts in the industry at 36.3 million, 13.8 million, and 12.3 million, respectively. Together, they account for 77.5 percent of the industry's total accounts.
However, their share of high-value accounts trailed smaller banks such as Citi Bank, Victoria Commercial Bank, and Bank of India. Some tier two and tier three banks held a larger share of quality accounts compared to their total number of accounts, due to their policy of catering to niche clients. Citibank Kenya led with 61.3 percent of its 2,223 total accounts holding balances of more than half a million shillings.
The half-a-million-shilling deposit threshold is an important peg for depositors, given that it is the upper limit of refundable deposits in case of a bank's collapse. The Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) raised the compensation ceiling for depositors in collapsed banks to Sh500,000 from Sh100,000 in July 2020. As of December 2025, banks held Sh6.12 trillion in customer deposits, growing 11.7 percent from Sh5.48 trillion in 2024.
Key points
- The number of bank accounts with over Sh500,000 increased to 781,977 in 2025.
- High-value accounts account for 0.97 percent of all 80.68 million bank accounts.
- 80 percent of deposits, or Sh4.92 trillion, fall above the insurable threshold of Sh500,000.
