Kenya’s leading retailer Naivas Supermarket’s employees have crossed the 10,750 mark. According to the latest company disclosures, Naivas employees stood at 10,750 before the retailer opened its 100th branch last week.

These disclosures have been made by the IBL Group, which is the conglomerate from Mauritania that owns a majority stake in the retailer.

Naivas opened its 100th branch on King’ara Road in Lavington, Nairobi. This branch, the retailer announced, is to be followed by two more branches. One branch will be along Mwanzi Road in Nairobi while the other will be located in Kakamega.

“Our expansion is not limited to Nairobi alone. We are going to open two new branches by the end of this year, one will be in Kakamega and the other along Mwanzi Road here in Nairobi,” the retailer said on the move that is expected to further grow its workforce.

These disclosures indicate that Naivas has added over 2,750 employees in just about one year. In 2022 when the retailer had 87 branches, its total number of employees was recorded at around 8,000.

These numbers mean that Naivas has beaten all firms listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange in the number of direct employees. For instance, as at March 2023, leading telecommunications firm Safaricom had a workforce of 5,362 employees.

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As at December 2022, Equity Bank had 8,160 employees in Kenya and a total of 13,065 permanent and temporary employees across its East African businesses.

In the same vein, as at December 2022, KCB Bank Group had a total of 5,458 in Kenya and a total of 16,580 in its regional businesses.