Absa Bank Kenya plans to invest as much as KES 3 billion (approximately US$23.2 million) per year in technology as it accelerates a shift toward digital and self-service banking channels, with the lender’s chief executive citing a dramatic change in how customers interact with the bank.
The commitment, reported by Business Daily and confirmed by the bank’s leadership, reflects a sustained multi-year programme of technology spending that reached KES 2.16 billion (US$16.7 million) in 2025. Absa Kenya Chief Executive Officer Abdi Mohamed said the investment is focused on making it easier for customers to transact digitally. “We are making it easier for our customers to transact with us,” he said, noting that 2025 was consistent with the bank’s broader strategy of migrating transactions onto digital platforms.
The scale of the shift is striking. About 94 percent of all Absa Kenya customer transactions in 2025 took place outside branches, compared with roughly 40 to 50 percent a decade ago. The bank says the move spans both retail and corporate clients, with growing adoption of mobile apps and internet banking driven by demand for around-the-clock access and convenience.
The digital drive is already reshaping the bank’s financial profile. Other operating expenses fell 21 percent to KES 7.35 billion (US$56.9 million) in the year to December 2025, with management attributing a significant portion of that reduction to automation and digitisation. The cost-to-income ratio, a standard measure of banking efficiency, improved to 36.5 percent from 46 percent the previous year. Net profit grew 10 percent to KES 22.9 billion (US$177.3 million) over the same period.
The strategy is also being reinforced at the leadership level. In February 2026, Absa Kenya appointed Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, the former Chief Executive Officer of M-Pesa Africa, to head its personal and private banking division. Lopokoiyit built his reputation overseeing the expansion of M-Pesa, the mobile money platform that transformed financial access across East Africa, and his appointment is widely read as a signal of where Absa expects retail growth to come from as the boundaries between traditional banking and financial technology continue to blur.
A survey by the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) found that fully automated or self-service channels, such as mobile apps and internet banking, had a preference rate of 56.49 percent among surveyed customers as of 2024, up from 45.7 percent in 2023.
Absa operates across more than a dozen African markets including Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia, and the group reported that its digitally active customer base grew from 4.6 million to 5.4 million in its 2025 annual results.
