Kenya’s tier-1 banks have largely exhausted the pool of new digital users, and I&M Group’s disclosure that 98% of its customers now transact digitally shows the next phase of growth will come from extracting more revenue from existing users rather than bringing new ones online.
I&M Group serves more than 727,000 customers across five markets and, with assets of KES 668.9 billion ($5.2 billion), ranks among Kenya’s top-tier lenders, making the figure a strong signal for the wider market.
For years, the banking industry’s playbook focused on moving customers out of branches and onto apps, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), and web platforms, cutting costs while expanding reach.
That shift has cut branch traffic and staffing intensity across the sector, with digital channels now handling the majority of routine transactions such as transfers, bill payments, and balance checks.
Moving banking transactions to digital channels is largely complete across the market. Most tier-one lenders, including KCB Group, Equity Group, and Co-operative Bank of Kenya, say more than 90% of transactions now happen outside physical branches. Few publish figures as high as I&M’s.
