Zenith Bank Plc, Nigeria's second-largest lender by assets, has completed the acquisition of Paramount Bank Kenya Limited, the Lagos-based lender confirmed on April 7, 2026, following the receipt of all regulatory approvals from authorities in both Nigeria and Kenya.
- •The deal, first disclosed publicly in November 2025, gives Zenith its inaugural foothold in East Africa and extends a now well-established pattern of Nigerian banking capital absorbing mid-tier Kenyan lenders.
- •The transaction covers the entire issued share capital of Paramount Bank Kenya Limited, along with its two subsidiaries: PB Capital, an investment banking arm, and Paramount Bancassurance. The acquisition price was not disclosed by either party.
- •The revised prudential guidelines require commercial banks to raise minimum core capital from KSh1.00 Bn to KSh10.00 Bn by 2029, with intermediate thresholds already in force.
As at December 2025, ten of Kenya's 39 licensed banks had not met the first threshold. For closely held, family-controlled Tier III lenders like Paramount, finding a well-capitalized acquirer was a more rational outcome than attempting multi-billion-shilling capital raises from a narrow shareholder base.
What Zenith is acquiring
Paramount Bank closed its final year as an independent lender with a profit after tax of KSh370.32 Mn for the full year ended December 31, 2025, up 8.9% from KSh339.94 Mn a year earlier, on total operating income of KSh988.98 Mn. Total assets stood at KSh17.11 Bn, customer deposits at KSh13.35 Bn, and the net loan book at KSh8.79 Bn. The bank operated eight branches, employed 78 staff, and was ranked 33rd out of 39 licensed commercial banks in Kenya by assets as at December 2024.
Core capital at December 2025 stood at KSh3.31 Bn, marginally above the CBK's revised threshold of KSh3.00 Bn, with an excess of only KSh306.78 Mn. The bank had cleared that threshold only in November 2025 via a rights issue that raised KSh332 Mn from existing shareholders, increasing paid-up capital from KSh1.00 Bn to KSh1.33 Bn. Against the CBK's ultimate target of KSh10.00 Bn by December 2029, the gap remained KSh6.69 Bn, a figure that was not credibly closable through organic earnings at Paramount's scale.
The balance sheet Zenith acquires was clean: no borrowed funds, no interbank liabilities, a liquidity ratio of 56.2% against a 20.0% statutory minimum, and core capital at 34.2% of risk-weighted assets. The bank was not distressed and what it lacked was the absolute capital mass to survive Kenya's regulatory consolidation independently.
The acquirer
Zenith Bank, Nigeria's second-largest lender by assets, reported total assets of NGN31.46 Tn for the full year ended December 31, 2025, with a profit after tax of NGN1.04 Tn and gross earnings of NGN4.19 Tn.
- •The bank completed a hybrid capital raise in 2025 securing NGN614.65 Bn through a rights issue and public offer, boosting its capital base by 160% and exceeding the Central Bank of Nigeria's minimum capital requirements for international authorization ahead of the March 2026 deadline. That capital surplus needed deployment, and East Africa was the identified destination.
- •Zenith joins United Bank for Africa, Guaranty Trust Bank, and Access Bank as Nigerian-owned institutions now licensed in Kenya.
- •Access Bank set the most recent valuation benchmark for such transactions when it acquired the National Bank of Kenya from KCB Group in 2025 for $109.6 Mn, a considerably larger institution than Paramount.
The Competition Authority of Kenya cleared the deal on condition that Zenith retains all 78 Paramount employees for at least 12 months from completion, placing the earliest possible date for any restructuring at April 2027. The CAK determined the transaction poses no competition risk, noting that post-merger Paramount's market share remains unchanged, with rival institutions controlling more than 99.8% of the Kenyan banking market.
Zenith's stated rationale is following its corporate clients into East Africa, a market where its Nigerian peers have operated for years. Its existing international footprint covers Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Cote d'Ivoire in Africa, along with operations in the United Kingdom, France, the UAE, and China. Kenya, at KSh17.11 Bn in total assets, is a small entry point for a group of Zenith's size, but the license, branch network, and dual financial services subsidiaries it acquires compress what would otherwise be a multi-year market entry into a single transaction.
