CBK to begin licensing new banks from July

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) will begin licensing new commercial banks from July 1, 2025.

This follows the lifting of a nine year moratorium which was effected on November 17, 2015.

According to CBK the moratorium was meant to strengthen the banking sector after a series of governance, risk management and operational challenges.

“Since then, significant strides have been made in strengthening the legal and regulatory framework for Kenya’s banking sector. Notably there have been mergers and acquisitions by existing players and entry of new domestic and foreign strategic investors into the sector,” said CBK.

However CBK says new licences will only be issued to new banks with core capital of Ksh 10 billion as per the Business Law Act 2024.

“Following the lifting of the moratorium, new entrants to the Kenyan banking sector must will be required to demonstrate that they can meet the enhanced minimum capital requirement of Ksh 10 billion,” said CBK.

Recent acquisition in the sector include sale of National Bank of Kenya (NBK) by KCB Group to Nigeria’s Access Bank Plc which the regulator approved this month.