Equity Group Posts Ksh43.8 Billion Half-Year Profit as NSE Rally Continues

Equity Group Holdings has delivered the standout banking result of the year so far, posting a Ksh43.8 billion pre-tax profit for H1 2026 — a 31.5 percent year-on-year jump that sent its share price to a five-year high on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

Group CEO James Mwangi, presenting results to analysts and investors at the company's Upper Hill headquarters, attributed the performance to a combination of factors: recovering loan demand across the group's seven-country network, a significant reduction in non-performing loans, and strong transaction volumes through Equity's mobile and digital channels which now process over Ksh1 trillion a month.

"This is not an accident. It is the result of disciplined strategy executed through a very difficult period," Mwangi said. "We entered the year cautious. We are leaving the half-year with confidence."

KCB Group was not far behind, reporting Ksh36.1 billion in profit — a 14.5 percent gain — while Co-operative Bank posted Ksh18 billion, up 28 percent, in what has been an unexpectedly strong H1 for Kenya's banking sector as a whole. The sector's combined return on equity rose from 23 percent in Q1 to 24.1 percent in Q2, signalling genuine profitability improvement rather than accounting adjustments.

The NSE has been on a tear. Safaricom is up 33 percent year-to-date as of early September, a recovery that has vindicated investors who held through 2024's brutal sell-off triggered by the anti-tax protests. Equity's 57 percent gain and KCB's 49 percent rise reflect similar sentiment: investors are betting that Kenya's economy has turned a corner.

The Central Bank of Kenya held its benchmark rate at 8.75 percent for the second consecutive Monetary Policy Committee meeting, signalling caution about inflation even as growth strengthens. Real GDP grew 5.3 percent in Q1 2026, up from 4.9 percent a year earlier.