Regulation and pay gaps pull fintech employees again to Kenya’s banks

High Kenyan business banks that misplaced employees to fintech startups throughout the sector’s enlargement from 2020 at the moment are regaining expertise, as licencing delays and retrenchments cut back the enchantment of fintech careers.

A number of bankers and recruiters informed TechCabal that some expertise who left for fintechs just a few years in the past at the moment are returning to conventional lenders, attracted by bettering salaries, clearer regulation, and job safety. The shift has intensified since 2024, as banks expanded their engineering and compliance departments in response to rising operational dangers, corresponding to cyberfraud.

The wave of expertise returning to Kenyan banks might reshape the nation’s monetary innovation, permitting lenders to develop digital merchandise and cost options in-house and transfer past conventional banking operations. 

For fintechs, the shift highlights the boundaries of enlargement and not using a clear regulatory surroundings and direct entry to infrastructure corresponding to M-Pesa.

“It’s all about job safety. From 2019 or thereabout, fintechs provided professionals working in banks a possibility for development and higher salaries,” stated Simon Ingari, a profession growth affiliate at Alternatives for Kenyans, a Nairobi-based recruitment company. 

“They’re shifting again as a result of conventional firms have  higher job safety: salaries and the promised development in startups will not be assured.”

Charles Ireri, a former compliance supervisor at Fairness Group, stated tier-one lenders had been among the many hardest hit throughout the preliminary shift. Banks, together with Fairness Group, KCB, Diamond Belief Financial institution, and NCBA, misplaced engineers, compliance officers, and product managers as fintechs corresponding to Chipper Money aggressively constructed native groups.

Ireri stated many startups struggled to retain expertise as soon as licences stalled and funding pressures mounted.

“Banks now have the experience and regulatory cowl to innovate internally,” he stated. “Fintechs can nonetheless experiment, however scaling is tough and not using a licence or enough capital.”

Increased pay

Banks have additionally responded by elevating salaries to retain and entice employees. In December 2025, Fairness Financial institution elevated salaries by about 20%, lifting its entry-level pay for everlasting roles to KES 116,000 ($900) a month from KES 65,000 ($504). Different massive lenders have adjusted pay bands, significantly for know-how, threat, and compliance roles, in accordance with Ireri.

Kenyan banks are among the many best-paying employers in East Africa. Mid-level professionals sometimes earn over KES 150,000 ($1,160) a month, whereas managers pocket greater than KES 200,000 ($1,550). In distinction, senior executives earn over 1,000,000 shillings ($7,751), ranges nicely above Kenya’s KES 20,000 ($155) common wage and more and more tough for fintechs to match.

The fintech sector’s hiring pull has weakened as enlargement plans bumped into regulatory hurdles. Cost service suppliers and remittance startups looking for to arrange in Kenya struggled to safe licences, forcing them to cut back. Flutterwave decreased its Kenyan workforce by about 50% in 2025, whereas Chipper Money scaled down to only two native staff.

The retrenchments adopted extended regulatory uncertainty. In 2024, the Central Financial institution of Kenya stated it will amend the Nationwide Cost Methods Act of 2011 to clear a authorized gray space that has blocked fintech licensing. Nearly two years later, the method of fixing the regulation has not progressed, leaving funds and remittance startups working by way of partnerships with banks or cell cash platforms corresponding to M-Pesa.

That reliance has restricted their skill to scale independently, significantly in lending, financial savings, and cross-border funds. Whereas fintechs proceed to supply professionals publicity to digital merchandise, banks now present related roles inside regulated establishments and with stronger stability sheets.

“Those that are returning are doing so with extra conservative expectations. Most are prioritising wage certainty, compliance expertise, and long-term stability,” Ingari stated.

Ireri stated the shift doesn’t sign the dying of fintech, nevertheless it means that in a tightly regulated monetary sector like Kenya’s, incumbents with licences, capital, and pricing energy retain a bonus even within the expertise contest.