This archive report was first published on 6 July 2021.
Published on July 6, 2021, a report by the Central Bank of Kenya has shed light on the distribution of bank branches across the country's 47 counties.
According to the report, nearly half of all bank branches in Kenya are located in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kiambu, with a total of 794 branches in these three counties. This represents 53 percent of the country's 1,502 banking outlets.
Nairobi, being the capital, hosts the majority of these branches, with 597 bank branches as of December 2020, accounting for 39.5 percent of all branches.
On the other hand, the 20 bottom counties have less than 10 bank branches each, with Samburu, Tana River, and Mandera counties having only three outlets each.
NCBA chief executive officer John Gachora attributed the disparity to the fact that banks follow economic growth, with no bank willing to set up in an area of low economic growth. He stated, “Banks follow economic growth, as a result branches are concentrated where the centres of the economy are. As banks raced for corporate clients in major cities and towns it led to a concentration in areas where they would find those types of clients.”
These sentiments are echoed by wealth data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, which shows that Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kiambu account for 30.9 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product, while the bottom 20 counties account for 15.6 percent.
