The Democratic Republic of the Congo is establishing itself as the new growth engine for Equity Group Holdings. The Kenyan banking giant’s Congolese subsidiary, Equity BCDC, is posting record results for the 2025 financial year and threatens to supplant the parent company in its own profitability before the end of the year.
Equity BCDC recorded a profit after tax of 24.7 billion Kenyan shillings for the 2025 financial year, up 58% from 15.6 billion the previous year, according to data published by the group and analyzed by the firm Abojani Research. Profit before tax grew by 60% to 32.1 billion shillings, while total revenue reached 71.8 billion shillings, an 18% improvement.
Surprising Results Even at the Top
In the credit market, the Congolese dynamic is particularly striking: outstanding loans jumped by 17% to 317.5 billion shillings, while loans at the Kenyan subsidiary fell by 3% over the same period. Equity BCDC’s asset base now stands at 708.3 billion shillings, up 8%.
Faced with these figures, the group’s CEO, James Mwangi, did not hide his surprise.
“When I predicted that the DRC could overtake Kenya in profitability by 2028, it looks like it will happen as early as 2026,” he stated during a presentation to analysts on Wednesday, as reported by Bloomberg. “And if I am wrong about 2026, it will certainly happen before 2028.”
Equity Bank Kenya, which Mwangi himself calls the group’s “flagship,” is now “fighting to remain visible,” while “the DRC is growing much faster than Kenya.”
Equity BCDC’s rise to power is also confirmed in regional comparisons. According to Abojani Research data, the Congolese subsidiary boasts a profit after tax almost three times higher than that of its main direct competitor in the DRC, KCB Bank Congo, which reported 8.5 billion shillings over the same period. At the Equity Group level, the DRC is already the most profitable African subsidiary outside Kenya, far ahead of Rwanda (5.4 billion), Uganda (3.6 billion), and Tanzania (2.7 billion).
For the group as a whole, annual profit increased by 55% to 72 billion shillings—the highest result ever published by a Kenyan company, ahead of KCB Group (66.8 billion) and Safaricom (69.8 billion).
M&B with Bloomberg
