Standard Bank Group aims to firm its business grip in East Africa, taking on its South African rivals including Absa Group and Nedbank Group.
Standard Bank Chief Executive Officer, Sim Tshabalala, said that the bank aims to grow in the region by increasing internal business rather than through mergers and acquisitions.
‘Traditionally the way we have grown as a bank is that we enter markets by starting with corporate and investment banking and then developing our capabilities in business and commercial banking for the middle market and then for retail,’ he said in an interview during a visit to Nairobi.
‘In 10 years, we want to have a universal bank in East Africa, and we are going to do that whether organically or inorganically, but organic is certainly the best way to do it,’ Mr Tshabalala said.
The CEO said the regional market has growth opportunities that Standard Bank targets to exploit.
‘There is great interest in Kenya and in East Africa. As you know, our competitors, both South African and international, are here often, and that speaks to something special happening in Kenya and East Africa,’ Tshabalala said.
‘This is an economy that has been growing at about 5 percent since the early 2000s as a consequence of the fact that the economy is diversifying; it is a great logistics hub and entry point into the region, and third is that it forms part of an interesting crescent of that trade route in between Egypt, the Gulf States and the Indian Ocean’.
Mr Tshabalala’s visit to Nairobi last week was the second in 2026 and comes in the wake of two major deals by Standard Bank Group’s South African rivals, Absa Group and Nedbank Group, that have totalled Sh122.8 billion.
Absa Group is set to upsize its stake in Absa Bank Kenya from 68.5 percent to 72.0 percent in a Sh6.53 billion deal, following receipt of bids amounting to 189.4 million shares from 2,045 shareholders in its tender offer priced at Sh34.50 per share, which runs from June 30, 2026 through August 11, 2026.
Meanwhile, Nedbank secured Central Bank of Kenya approval for its Sh116.3 billion acquisition of a 66 percent stake in NCBA Group on August 28, 2026.
Amid the acquisition rush by South African banks in the Kenyan market, Mr Tshabalala maintains that Standard Group is prioritizing organic growth in the region, implying that an acquisition is not on the near-term horizon for the bank.