Equity Group, the second-largest lender in Kenya by asset size, is constructing an artificial intelligence system to anticipate employee departures. TechCabal reported that the Nairobi-based financial institution disclosed this project in its 2025 sustainability report. The bank described the development as predictive analytics designed to identify risk windows for attrition. According to the publication, earlier warnings will allow the company to determine when to intervene for retention and where to prepare for staffing shortages.
This strategic shift addresses a specific challenge within the Kenyan banking sector. TechCabal noted that fintechs, telecommunications firms, and competing lenders are vying for the same digital and payments talent. Consequently, retaining experienced personnel has become as critical as recruitment. Equity stated that early insight into turnover would enable targeted retention actions and sustainable staffing strategies to ensure the reinforcement of critical talent.
Workforce metrics indicate a gradual reduction in net employment turnover, which declined to 10.6% last year from 11.1% in 2024. TechCabal observed that this improvement was smaller than the drop recorded in the prior year, when turnover fell from 17% in 2023 to approximately 11% in 2024. Despite this trend, the bank nearly doubled its hiring to 3,198 individuals in 2025. The total workforce increased by 2.2% to 13,370 employees, while staff costs rose 18% to KES 39.5 billion, equivalent to $303.9 million.
The drive to retain specialists coincides with a growing share of Equity’s earnings originating from operations outside Kenya. TechCabal reported that regional subsidiaries generated 48% of post-tax banking profit in 2025. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone contributed KES 24.7 billion to this total. The group is consolidating workforce and performance data from all markets into a unified human resources platform and deploying specialists on secondment to subsidiaries requiring specific expertise.
To support retention, Equity prioritizes internal advertising for vacancies and provides incentives for staff with critical skills or leadership roles. The bank is formalizing career paths enabling technical specialists to advance without assuming managerial duties. Average training time per employee increased to 74 hours in 2025 from 45 hours previously, with some generative AI courses becoming mandatory. TechCabal noted the group gave no launch date for the forecasting tool, leaving open how the model will function and what employee data it will utilize.