Social media has been awash with a report detailing the number of local bank accounts holding amounts exceeding Sh. 500,000.

Data provided in the 2023 Bank Supervision report indicates that NCBA Bank has the highest number of such accounts at 416,481, followed by Equity Bank Kenya and KCB Bank Kenya with 124,098 and 113,368 accounts, respectively.

Co-Operative Bank of Kenya ranks fourth with 86,033 accounts, while ABSA Kenya closes the top five with 59,326 accounts.

Following Co-Operative Bank and ABSA, Diamond Trust Bank had 58,996 accounts above Sh. 500,000. Rounding the top ten were Standard Chartered Bank with 38,998, I&M Bank at 37,271, Bank of Baroda at 32,155, and Stanbic Bank at 25,645.

Family Bank, National Bank, Prime Bank, Gulf African Bank, and Bank of India jointly open approximately 69,780 accounts with balances above Sh. 500,000. Others include HFC, SBM Bank, Credit Bank, and some international banks, adding 24,976 accounts to the pool.

The above report of accounts above Sh. 500,000 presents a picture quite contrary to the 2022 data. At that time, fewer than 2.5% of all active accounts in Kenya, roughly 1.8 million, held more than Sh. 100,000 by the end of the year.

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This highlights Kenya’s low savings culture, with the average account holding just Sh. 66,071. In 2022, total deposits reached Sh. 4.44 trillion, despite a reported decline in the total number of accounts.

The report on accounts with over Sh. 500,000 indicates a concentration of wealth, but a broader perspective is needed to understand the full context.

Statistics from 2022 showed that only a few accounts had over Sh. 100,000, but there was a positive increase of 72,724 accounts that year. This could be seen as a sign of the Kenyan economy recovering after the pandemic.