Prime Bank's Profit Rises to Record KSh 3.29Bn as Funding Costs Fall

Prime Bank Group has posted a record KSh 3.29 billion half-year profit after tax, up 20.8% from a year earlier, as falling funding costs lifted net interest income to KSh 5.45 billion, extending an earnings shift toward interest income even as non-interest revenue declined for a third straight H1 period.

• The privately held lender, one of Kenya’s largest Tier II banks, grew total operating income 16.2% to KSh 6.15 billion in the six months ended June.
• Profit before tax increased 18.2% to KSh 3.46 billion, while total operating expenses rose 13.8% to KSh 2.69 billion.
• The bank added branches in 2025, including Signature Mall, Broadwalk Mall, Langata and Our Mall Karen, taking its network to 25 branches, after adding international remittance, digital payments and USD correspondent-banking partnerships in 2024.

Net interest income rose 24.8% from KSh 4.37 billion, extending a sharp expansion that has taken the measure from KSh 2.18 billion in H1 2020. Interest income increased 5.3% to KSh 10.52 billion, while interest expenses declined 9.8% to KSh 5.08 billion, continuing the funding-cost repricing that drove Prime’s earnings growth in 2025.

The gains increasingly contrast with non-interest income, which fell 24.2% to KSh 704.5 million. It has now declined for three consecutive first halves from a peak of KSh 1.89 billion in H1 2023, leaving interest income as the dominant driver of revenue.

Prime’s balance sheet expanded alongside earnings. Total assets rose 16.9% to KSh 251.08 billion, more than double their H1 2020 level, while customer deposits increased 10.9% to KSh 168.11 billion. Net loans grew 8.6% to KSh 60.52 billion, accelerating after the bank maintained a largely flat loan book during 2025. Prime said its loan book ended 2025 at KSh 55.6 billion as it prioritised liquidity and portfolio management.

Government securities remained substantially larger than customer lending. Prime held about KSh 108.77 billion in Kenya government securities at June, roughly 1.8 times its net loan book. The strategy had already intensified in 2025, when its government securities portfolio increased sharply while lending remained flat.

Gross non-performing loans were virtually unchanged at KSh 5.45 billion, but remained below the KSh 6.29 billion recorded in H1 2024. Loan-loss provisions rose to KSh 165.1 million from KSh 63.4 million.

Prime maintained a 77.7% liquidity ratio, against the statutory 20% minimum, while its total capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio stood at 31.6%.