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NCBA mints 32pc of profit from Fuliza, M-Shwari loans
NCBA Bank Group Director Finance David Abwoga makes his remarks at a panel session during the release of the FY2025 Financial Results on March 26, 2026 at Capital Club.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
NCBA Group's digital loans business contributed 31.9 percent of its pre-tax profit in the year to December 2025, underscoring how financial institutions are reaping big from consumers' reliance on short-term mobile loans like Fuliza to meet daily expenses.
The group reported pre-tax earnings of Sh8.9 billion from its digital lending platforms –representing a 20.2 percent growth— in the review period when its total pre-tax profit stood at Sh27.89 billion.
Pre-tax earnings from M-Shwari and Fuliza, which are overdraft services offered in partnership with Safaricom, grew by a third to Sh6.68 billion driven by increased use of the credit services.
M-Shwari usage dropped marginally to Sh96 billion from Sh99 billion a year earlier while the Loop B2C (Business-to-Consumer) platform loaned out Sh4.3 billion. This means its total digital disbursements in Kenya were Sh1.35 trillion, equivalent to Sh3.7 billion per day.
“We are very proud that we've crossed over Sh1 trillion and we've done so in a moment of a lot of uncertainty. We've done so in a moment when we have a lot of new entrants trying to come in, in the various markets,” said the group’s director of finance, David Abwoga.
“But all of our core franchises –Fuliza, M Shwari and even our Loop B2C platform— are continuing to drive growth which tells us that we have a much more resilient business and we are able to bring better experiences,” he added.
Launched in 2019, Fuliza allows M-Pesa customers to complete transactions even when they have insufficient funds in their mobile money wallets, provided it is within one’s assigned limit, which is determined by their M-Pesa activity and history. Funds received in the account are then automatically used to repay the outstanding Fuliza amount with interest and fees.
Fuliza customers are charged a one-off one-percent access fee and a daily maintenance fee from Sh5 for loans between Sh101 and Sh500, up to Sh30 for amounts between Sh2,501 and Sh70,000.
Safaricom and KCB, the other underwriting partner for Fuliza, are also expected to be earning revenues from the digital lending platform, indicating how lucrative the business is.
According to Safaricom, the owner of the M-Pesa platform, the average Fuliza loan size as at September last year was Sh254.60, a 7.8 percent growth from previous year's Sh236.20.
NCBA said it placed the digital businesses cost of risk at 0.4 percent following years of data collection that allowed it to make solid calls on a borrower's financial habits.
“Strategic investments and advanced artificial intelligence model training are paying dividends with superior credit outcomes and strong profitability in our digital business position us well for continued scale,” said Mr Abwoga.
The bank, which reported a net profit of Sh23.3 billion for the full year ended December 2025, invested Sh6 billion in maintenance of its technology to support the digital business.
NCBA also has digital businesses in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ivory Coast and recently, Ghana.
In Uganda and Rwanda, NCBA has partnered with MTN to offer MoKash under which it has loaned out Sh20 billion in each market. The Rwandese market is, however, small with 5.6 million customers against Uganda’s 15.3 million, signalling Rwandans are borrowing larger amounts than Ugandans.
Tanzanians, under the M-Pawa platform, had borrowed Sh5.5 billion while Ivory Coast’s 6.2 million users of MoMo borrowed Sh3.9 billion.
Its digital business was the main attraction to several suitors who wanted to acquire the bank before it settled on South Africa's Nedbank Group. Nedbank has offered Sh110.4 billion in cash and stock to buy a 66 percent stake in NCBA in a transaction that will see it have access to the over 70 million digital customers of the group.
Competition in the digital lending space has been picking up with other banks and microfinance institutions coming on board to offer short term loans through mobile wallets.
