In the year leading up to December, the number of bank deposit accounts with a value of above Sh100,000 expanded more quickly, offsetting a decline of 64.02 million accounts, or 3.5 percent, in the total number of deposit accounts.Over 1.9 million people now have bank accounts with more than $100,000.

With year-over-year gains of 11, 10, and 7.5 percent, respectively, KCB, NCBA, and Stanbic Bank took the lead among the big banks in the growth of high-value deposits.

Despite a decline in the number of deposit accounts over the last year, the banking sector’s deposits climbed by 12.3% to Sh5 trillion in December 2021 from Sh4.5 trillion in the same month, thanks to the deployment of alternative deposit acquisition techniques by banks, such as digital channels.

“The growth in deposits was due to deposit mobilisation through agency banking and mobile phone platforms,” the CBK stated.

More than Sh3.736 trillion, or more than three-quarters of all customer deposits, were held by nine of Kenya’s largest banks, giving them a combined market share of 74.76 percent.

Despite this, microfinance banks lost 7.8 percent of their deposits during the same period as higher-yielding asset classes ate up the institutions.