Bank owners' earnings fall by 33 percent after a massive drop in profits

NSE Market watch board during ringing of the bell ceremony at Nairobi securities Exchange in Nairobi on Friday, September 4, 2019. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

The profitability of the country’s banks dropped by a third in the first six months of this year, slicing off a sizable chunk of the bank owners’ returns.

A new Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) report shows that banks registered a profit before tax of Sh60 billion by June 2020, down from Sh85.8 billion in the same period last year.