KCB Group PLC’s workforce grew 16% to 12,090 employees in 2024, while internal promotions fell 17% amid restructuring and stricter performance targets, the bank said in its sustainability report.
- •Promotions declined to 627 from 759 a year earlier, with male promotions down 23% and female promotions lower by 8%.
- •Opportunities in mid-level roles slipped 10.6%, while two clerks were promoted compared with none in 2023.
- •The Nairobi-based lender said the changes reflect tighter merit-based advancement and a shift toward younger hires.
Total staff rose from 10,417, driven by expansion in Kenya and regional markets, while attrition eased to 6.2% from 7.9% on stronger engagement and welfare programs.
KCB logged 390,875 training hours for 5,176 staff and expanded its Leadership Academy and Future-Ready Leaders programme. Partnerships with Amazon Web Services and LRMG trained women employees in digital and data skills.
The bank said it evaluated KSh 578.3 billion ($4.3 billion) of loans for environmental and social risk last year, bringing cumulative assessments since 2020 to KES 2.5 trillion. It issued KES 53.2 billion in green loans, lifting its green portfolio share to 21.3% from 15%. About KSh 24.1 billion of that lending was verified through the Climate Assessment for Financial Institutions tool.
KCB allocated 7.5% of supplier contracts—worth KSh 913 million—to firms owned by special-interest groups. Chief Executive Paul Russo said the bank is aligning profit with environmental and social priorities: “Sustainable practices must also be economically viable in the long run.”
The bank secured a KSh 69 million facility from the Green Climate Fund toward a planned KSh 15.5 billion pipeline that targets support for more than 100,000 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Resource-efficiency initiatives cut overall consumption 4% and offset 1.3 metric tonnes of carbon-equivalent emissions after planting 1.39 million trees.
The bank is also measuring financed emissions in motor-vehicle, real-estate, and business-loan portfolios to identify reduction strategies.
Through its KCB Foundation, the lender disbursed KSh 2.58 billion to 4,000 youth-owned MSMEs under the 2Jiajiriprogramme, trained 9,699 young people, and helped create about 60,700 jobs. It also supported livestock and blue-economy entrepreneurs under the Mifugo ni Mali initiative.