Equity’s Tech-Led Transformation Powers Record Q1 Performance, Regional Subsidiaries Drive Half of Group Profitability

Equity Group Holdings Plc has reported strong first-quarter results for 2026, demonstrating the continued success of its deliberate transformation into a resilient, technology-led, pan‑African financial services Group. Profit After Tax rose 24% to KSh19.1 billion, reflecting strengthened balance sheet quality, disciplined execution, and growing contributions from regional subsidiaries.

The Group’s balance sheet expanded 16% to KSh2.04 trillion, supported by 13% growth in customer deposits and 9% growth in net loans, signaling sustained customer confidence and broad-based economic activity across its markets. This growth was driven by a strong and growing customer base of 22.7 million customers, supported by an extensive distribution infrastructure comprising 86,910 Agency Outlets and 1.4 million merchants, reinforcing the Group’s position as a leading integrated financial services provider in the region.

A Deliberate Journey of Transformation

Equity’s Q1 performance reflects a multi‑year transformation agenda anchored in resilience, diversification, and technology. The Group has restructured its operating model, strengthened its regional footprint, and invested heavily in digital and AI‑enabled capabilities to build a future‑ready institution.

Operational efficiency continued to improve, with the cost‑to‑income ratio declining to 50.6% from 54.2% – a direct outcome of productivity gains, shared services, and customer‑led migration to digital channels.

Return on assets and equity remained strong, with ROA at 3.9% and ROE at 22.6% signaling strong asset productivity and disciplined capital deployment.

Commenting on the results, Dr. James Mwangi, Group Managing Director and CEO, said: “Our Q1 performance reflects the success of our deliberate transformation into a diversified, regional, technology‑led financial services Group. We are building a future‑ready institution; scalable, secure, and impact‑led, anchored in digital capabilities, staff upskilling, and a culture of disciplined execution.”

He added:

“As we progress toward our 2030 ambitions, we are evolving beyond traditional banking into a Transformation Finance Institution that mobilizes capital, connects ecosystems, and accelerates inclusive, sustainable prosperity across Africa.” Equity’s technology‑led transformation is now firmly embedded across the Group. Customer behavior continues to shift decisively toward digital channels, with 98.3% of all transactions occurring outside branches and 89.5% processed through digital platforms, demonstrating that customers are actively choosing the convenience and reliability of Equity’s digital ecosystem.

The Group’s technology organization, strengthened through the buildout of the Technology Group in the fourth quarter, continues to modernize core systems, payments infrastructure, and risk analytics. This transformation is reinforced by large-scale staff upskilling, with employees embracing AI and digital training at impressive scale, positioning the workforce to lead the next phase of innovation. This includes 80% of Group staff completing a business-focused generative AI course, with over 20,000 hours of instruction achieved. Upskilling efforts with iamtheCODE reflect over 5,000 active users with over 3,500 hours of learning recorded. These foundational investments are enabling faster service delivery, improved risk management, and scalable growth across all markets.

Tighter risk controls and diversification – fueled growth

The Group continued to strengthen asset quality and risk buffers. NPL coverage improved to 72%, up from 67%, while loan loss provisions declined by 18% as the quality of the loan book improved. The loan book also recorded a significant improvement in risk indicators, with a year‑on‑year improvement in non-performing loans (NPLs) from 14% to 10%, reflecting disciplined collection underwriting, enhanced analytics, and the benefits of a diversified portfolio. These improvements underscore the Group’s commitment to resilience and long-term sustainability.

Regional subsidiaries continued to deliver strong and accelerating growth, and now account for 50% of Group banking profitability and 52% of Group banking total assets – a milestone in Equity’s journey to become a continental champion. Equity Bank Kenya delivered a 21% year-on-year increase in Profit After Tax to KSh10.3 billion (Q1 2025: KSh8.5 billion) and sustained its MSME banking leadership, disbursing 36.2% of the Kshs 101 billion MSME loans in Kenya between January and March 2026 reflecting transformation while retaining strong focus on core SME business

EquityBCDC in the Democratic Republic of Congo, profit after tax rose by 32% to KSh5.0 billion. Equity Rwanda delivered a 36% increase to KSh1.5 billion, while Equity Tanzania recorded exceptional performance with 150% growth to KSh1.04 billion.

Across assets, revenue, loan book, and profit before tax, the regional banking businesses are now a major contributor with 52%, 51%,54%, 50% respectively, demonstrating the strength and maturity of the Group’s pan‑African strategy.

Equity Insurance Group continued its strong momentum, with gross written premiums rising 30% to KSh4.5 billion and profit before tax increasing 53% to KSh0.64 billion. The health insurance business wrote KSh1.2 billion, while the life and general insurance businesses continued to scale rapidly writing KShs 2.7 Billion and KShs 0.6 Billion respectively. Insurance is emerging as a significant third engine of growth, complementing the Group’s banking and payments businesses.

Equity Group Foundation: Impact at Scale

The Equity Group Foundation (EGF) continued to deliver transformative social impact across Africa through Equity Group’s integrated model of economic empowerment, social impact and sustainability. Across its Education and Leadership Development pillar, EGF now supports over 12,844 active scholars and expanded global university opportunities with 91 new international admissions valued at over USD 18.6 million. To date, EGF under the Wings to Fly scholarship program and the Elimu Scholarship Program has benefitted 60,009 scholars. The Equity Leaders Program has also surpassed 10,515 cumulative paid internships, strengthening Africa’s future leadership and workforce pipeline.

Under Enterprise Development and Financial Inclusion, EGF trained over one million entrepreneurs and facilitated more than KSh416 billion in credit access to MSMEs, accelerating entrepreneurship, financial inclusion and job creation across the region.

In Food and Agriculture, the Foundation continued to deepen agricultural commercialisation and climate resilience, including through the USD 25 million SASTAIN programme in partnership with Mastercard Foundation targeting 60,000 smallholder farmers and agri-MSMEs in Tanzania and DRC.

Through its Energy, Environment and Climate Action pillar, EGF advanced sustainability efforts by planting over 45.5 million trees and scaling clean energy, water and sanitation solutions to strengthen environmental resilience and green growth across communities.

Equity Afya continued to expand access to affordable and quality healthcare through a growing network of 154 medical centres that have now served over 4.9 million patient visits.

EGF’s Innovation and Technology Pillar also scaled rapidly to train 600,000 youth in AI, machine learning and data analytics through partnerships with iamtheCODE, Huawei ICT Academy and WorldQuant University. Under the Huawei ICT Academy programme, 7,344 staff completed the GenAI course and have been invited to undertake two additional prescribed Huawei certification courses. Through WorldQuant University, 641 staff have been admitted to the MSc in Financial Engineering programme. Equity was also invited to participate in a new pilot programme for an Applied AI Certificate that will inform the rollout of a future Master’s programme in Applied AI. Meanwhile, 5,206 users are now enrolled at the iamtheCODE Digital Academy, with 3,587 hours of instruction completed to date. These achievements continue to position Equity Group as a future-ready institution driving inclusive prosperity, sustainable development and long-term resilience across Africa through innovation, human capital development and transformative partnerships.

Preparing for the Future

With ROA and efficiency at peak levels, the Group is preparing for the next phase of growth under its 2030 strategy, anchored on the Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan (ARRP). The strategy aims to expand operations to 15 countries, serve 100 million customers, deploy next-generation digital and AIenabled systems, for transformation finance across Africa. The Group remains well capitalised with sufficient headroom to support its growth ambitions.

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