Africa Digest News

NCBA Group is a relatively young name attached to two very old banks. Its roots trace back to National Industrial Credit (NIC), incorporated in Kenya on September 29, 1959 as a joint venture between Standard Bank of South Africa and Mercantile Credit Company of the United Kingdom.

NIC started as a non bank financial institution before obtaining a full commercial banking license from the Central Bank of Kenya in 1995, and it merged with African Mercantile Bank in 1997 to broaden its offering.

The other half of the story is Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), founded in 1962. Bank of America once held an 84 percent stake in CBA before divesting fully during the 1980s, leaving the bank entirely in Kenyan hands.

Over the following decades, CBA built a reputation as an innovative regional bank, closely associated with Kenya’s founding presidential family.

The two institutions came together in a landmark merger. Their boards agreed to combine in December 2018, shareholders of both banks approved the deal in April 2019, and the Central Bank of Kenya granted final approval effective September 30, 2019, creating what was then Kenya’s third largest bank by assets.

The combined group began trading as NCBA Group PLC on October 1, 2019, structured as a non operating holding company with NCBA Bank Kenya PLC as its main banking subsidiary.

More recently, the bank’s ownership itself has become the headline story. In January 2026, South Africa’s Nedbank Group announced plans to acquire roughly 66 percent of NCBA’s shares.

Kenyan regulators cleared the deal in stages through 2026, with the Central Bank of Kenya granting final approval on August 28, 2026, positioning NCBA to become a Nedbank subsidiary while keeping its own brand, local leadership, and NSE listing for the remaining public float.

Core Business Lines and Revenue Streams

NCBA operates across several segments that mirror its dual banking heritage:

• Retail (Consumer and SME) Banking: savings and current accounts, personal loans, home and car loans, and asset finance products.
• Corporate and Institutional Banking: overdrafts, term loans, trade finance, and treasury and foreign exchange services for larger businesses and institutions.
• Investment Banking: through NIC Capital, offering brokerage, corporate advisory, and investment services.
• Treasury Dealing: foreign exchange and money market operations.
• Digital Banking: NCBA has built one of the region’s most active digital lending businesses, including mobile lending platforms that reach customers across multiple East and West African markets.
• Bancassurance and insurance intermediation: distributing insurance products alongside its core banking services.

The group serves customers well beyond Kenya, with operations in Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda, plus a digital banking presence in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

For the 2025 financial year, NCBA reported revenue of roughly Ksh 65 billion, up about 14 percent year on year, and net profit of Ksh 23.4 billion, a 7 percent increase from 2024.

Growth continued into 2026, with the group posting Ksh 12.4 billion in profit after tax for the first half of the year, up 12.2 percent from the same period in 2025.

Competitive Position in the Industry

NCBA sits among Kenya’s Tier 1 banks, generally ranked fourth by market share behind KCB, Equity, and Co-operative Bank.

Recent industry data put its domestic market share at around 8.3 percent, with total assets of roughly Ksh 589 billion, making it one of the five or six banks that together control the bulk of Kenya’s banking sector assets.

The merger that created NCBA was itself a strategic response to a consolidating market: combining CBA’s roughly 5.6 percent market share with NIC’s roughly 4.3 percent instantly created a bank with close to 10 percent share and a customer base spanning several East African countries.

That scale has let NCBA compete for large corporate and trade finance mandates typically reserved for the very largest banks, while its digital lending arm has given it an unusually strong footprint in mobile and unsecured consumer credit.

The pending Nedbank transaction adds a new competitive dimension.

Once completed, NCBA is expected to gain access to Nedbank’s corporate and investment banking expertise and a much larger balance sheet, potentially strengthening its ability to compete for large scale infrastructure and energy financing deals that have historically gone to international banks operating in the region.

Ownership Structure

For most of its history as a merged entity, NCBA’s ownership sat with two prominent Kenyan families.

The Kenyatta family, associated with the legacy CBA side of the business, has held its position mainly through an investment vehicle called Enke Investments, controlling around 13.2 percent of the group, alongside additional shares held directly by family members.

The Ndegwa family, descendants of former Central Bank of Kenya governor Philip Ndegwa and associated with the legacy NIC side, has held its stake mainly through First Chartered Securities, at roughly 14.9 percent, making it the single largest shareholder bloc in recent years.

That ownership picture is now being reshaped by one of the largest cross border banking transactions in the region’s recent history.

Nedbank Group of South Africa opened a tender offer in May 2026 to acquire approximately 66 percent of NCBA’s shares, structured as roughly 80 percent in new Nedbank shares (listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) and 20 percent in cash.

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When the offer closed in July 2026, shareholders tendered about 79.9 percent of NCBA’s issued shares, well above the 66 percent Nedbank was seeking, reflecting how eager both founding families and other investors were to participate.

The Central Bank of Kenya granted final regulatory approval on August 28, 2026.

Once the transaction completes, Nedbank will hold a controlling 66 percent stake in NCBA, with the remaining 34 percent continuing to trade publicly on the NSE.

NCBA’s management has said the bank will keep its own brand, independent governance structure, and local leadership even after the change in majority ownership.

Why It’s Listed on the NSE Specifically

NCBA’s NSE listing predates the current company by decades and reflects both of its founding institutions’ histories:

• A listing lineage stretching back to 1971: NIC became a public company on the Nairobi Stock Exchange that year, giving the NCBA lineage one of the longest continuous listing histories among Kenyan banks.
• Domestic incorporation and regulation: both NIC and CBA were incorporated and licensed in Kenya, so a Kenyan listing was always the natural venue for raising public capital and meeting local disclosure requirements.
• Regulatory design of the 2019 merger: when NIC and CBA combined, regulators structured the new entity as a non operating holding company, NCBA Group PLC, which itself became the listed vehicle on the NSE, continuing rather than breaking the listing chain.
• Preserving public accountability through ownership changes: even as Nedbank moves to take a controlling 66 percent stake, the deal has been explicitly structured to keep 34 percent of NCBA’s shares trading on the NSE, preserving local investor access and governance transparency rather than fully delisting the company.

In short, the NSE listing isn’t just a historical artifact, it has been actively preserved through two major ownership changes precisely because it keeps the bank answerable to Kenyan regulators and local shareholders.

Current Stock Price

As of July 27, 2026, NCBA closed around Sh89.75 on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, with the stock having touched an all time high of Sh100 back in January 2026 shortly after the Nedbank deal was first announced.

Around that time, the group’s market capitalization stood at roughly Sh148 billion.

Given the ongoing Nedbank transaction, NCBA’s share price has been more volatile than usual over the past year, and it may continue to move on regulatory and completion news.

Treat this figure as a historical snapshot rather than today’s price, and check the live quote through the NSE website, your broker’s platform, or a live data source such as African Markets or myStocks before making any decisions.

How to Buy NCBA Group Shares

Buying NCBA shares (or any NSE listed stock) follows the standard process used across the Kenyan market:

1. Open a CDS account. A Central Depository System (CDS) account holds your shares electronically. You can open one through the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC), though most investors do this through a licensed stockbroker as part of onboarding.
2. Choose a licensed stockbroker. You’ll need an NSE licensed brokerage, such as Faida Investment Bank, AIB-AXYS Africa, Genghis Capital, or NCBA’s own investment banking arm, NIC Capital, to place trades. Most offer mobile or online trading platforms.
3. Fund your trading account. Deposit money into the account linked to your broker, typically through bank transfer or mobile money, depending on what the brokerage supports.
4. Place your buy order. Specify the ticker (NCBA), the number of shares, and your price, either a market order at the prevailing price or a limit order at a price you set. Orders match through the NSE’s electronic trading system.
5. Diaspora and foreign investor options. Kenyans abroad and foreign investors can buy NCBA shares too. Many Kenyan brokerages support remote account opening with certified identification, and some platforms allow USD settlement, letting diaspora investors trade without being physically present in Kenya. Note that once the Nedbank transaction completes, some shareholders may also end up holding Nedbank shares listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as part of that separate deal.
6. Track your holding. Once the trade settles, usually within a few business days, the shares reflect in your CDS account. You can follow price movement, dividend announcements, and corporate actions, including further updates on the Nedbank transaction, through your broker’s platform, the NSE website, or financial data sites carrying live NSE quotes.

As with any equity investment, share prices can go down as well as up, and this isn’t financial advice. It’s worth doing your own research, or speaking with a licensed financial advisor, before buying.