Equity Group is widening its revenue streams beyond traditional banking, with its insurance business emerging as a strong contributor to earnings growth in the first half of 2025. The expansion into life, general, and health insurance has positioned the Group to tap into new markets while boosting overall profitability.
Equity Life Assurance, in its third year, ranked as the second-largest group credit insurance company in Kenya with a 7% share in group life and credit life. It also ranked seventh in life insurance return on equity and eighth in profitability. Gross written premiums rose 58% to KSh 3.8 billion from KSh 2.4 billion, while net insurance and investment revenue grew 18% to KSh 953 million from KSh 808 million. Profit before tax rose 20% to KSh 890 million, insurance contract liabilities increased 22% to KSh 23 billion, and total assets climbed to KSh 28.6 billion. Return on equity stood at 40.7%, with a return on assets of 4.7%. Equity Life Assurance has reached 6.7 million cumulative unique customers and issued 16.6 million policies within its first three years.
The Group’s newly launched general insurance division posted KSh 1.36 billion in gross written premiums within six months, generating KSh 640 million in insurance revenue and a profit before tax of KSh 32 million. This equates to a 6.6% return on equity and a 2.8% return on assets.
Overall, Equity Insurance Group reported a 26% rise in profit before tax, supported by a 115% increase in gross written premiums to KSh 5.18 billion from KSh 2.41 billion. Insurance revenue increased by 59%, while total assets grew by 40%.
Record Half-Year Results
Equity Group delivered its strongest quarterly results in history during H1 2025, with growth driven by regional banking operations and its expanding insurance portfolio. The Equity Group Half Year 2025 performance showed record profits before tax, underpinned by improved loan quality, growing regional market share, and higher insurance revenue.
Regional Diversification Driving Growth
The Group’s regional banking business continued to expand, accounting for 49% of deposits, 50% of loan book, 48% of total banking assets, and 50% of Group banking revenue. Regional subsidiaries contributed 46% of profit before tax and 43% of profit after tax from the banking business.
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Subsidiary performance improved notably, with Equity Bank Tanzania reducing its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio to 2.9% from 10.6%, and Equity Bank Uganda lowering its NPL ratio to 12.2% from 17.9%. The Group’s overall NPL ratio closed the half year at 13.7%, compared to 14.0% in Q1 2025 and 12.9% in H1 2024, outperforming the Kenyan banking industry average of 17.6% as at April 2025. IFRS NPL coverage stood at 68.2%, while the cost of risk declined from 2.6% to 1.7% year-on-year.
Digital and Non-Banking Growth
Technology and insurance businesses increased their contribution to the Group’s performance, with non-banking operations now accounting for 1.9% of total assets (up from 1.4%), 4% of revenue (up from 2.8%), and 3.8% of profit before tax (up from 3.5%). The non-banking segment achieved a return on equity of 42.4% and a return on assets of 6.6%, compared to the Group average of 26.1% and 3.9% respectively.
Service delivery continued to shift toward digital channels, with 98% of transactions conducted outside branches, and 87.4% of these completed via digital platforms.
Social Impact and Sustainability
Through the Equity Group Foundation, the Group invested USD 715 million in social impact and sustainability initiatives. Funding allocation included 47% for secondary school scholarships, 34% for university scholarships, and the remainder for enterprise development, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, health, clean energy, environment, and agriculture.
The Equity Leaders Program (ELP) has supported 29,515 university scholars to date, including 1,061 students placed at global universities and 9,700 who have completed paid internships. In technical and vocational training, 3,979 TVET scholars have benefited from Group sponsorship.
Environmental initiatives included distributing 520,549 clean energy products and planting 36.4 million trees. Climate finance exceeded USD 200 million, supporting enterprises and households to adopt sustainable practices. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) recognized Equity as the global leader in climate-related transactions.
Under the Young Africa Works program, the Group disbursed KSh 363.09 billion to 350,149 MSMEs, with 2.49 million women and youth receiving financial education. A total of 658,459 MSMEs have undergone entrepreneurship training. Social protection programs reached 5.9 million people, with KSh 169.8 billion disbursed via cash transfer programs.
The Equity Afia healthcare network expanded to 139 clinics, delivering 3.98 million patient visits during the period.
Recognition
Equity Bank was named the “Best Regional Bank in East Africa” at the African Banker Awards 2025 and retained its title as Kenya’s most valuable brand in 2025 for the second year running.
Jefferson Wachira is a writer at Africa Digest News, specializing in banking and finance trends, and their impact on African economies.