Equity Group, Kenya's second-largest lender by assets, is building an artificial intelligence tool to forecast when staff are likely to leave. In its 2025 sustainability report, the Nairobi-based group said it was developing "predictive analytics to forecast attrition and identify risk windows," TechCabal and Business Daily reported on Tuesday.
Equity said earlier warnings would help it decide when to step in to keep employees and where to prepare for staffing gaps. The report said early insight into turnover would support "targeted retention actions" and help retain critical talent. The group gave no launch date. It also did not say how the model will work or what employee data it will use. Nor did it say whether the tool will flag individuals or forecast turnover across teams and markets.
Staff turnover is already falling, but more slowly. Net employment turnover dropped to 10.6% in 2025 from 11.1% in 2024, according to TechCabal. A year earlier, it had fallen from 17% in 2023 to about 11%.
Equity nearly doubled hiring to 3,198 people in 2025. Its total workforce grew 2.2% to 13,370. Permanent staff rose by nearly 1,000, while temporary staff fell by almost 700. Staff costs climbed 18% to KES 39.5 billion from KES 33.4 billion a year earlier.
The push to keep specialists comes as Equity earns more outside Kenya. Its regional banking subsidiaries generated 48% of banking profit after tax in 2025. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone contributed KES 24.7 billion. The group sends head office specialists on secondment to subsidiaries. It is also moving staff records and performance data from all its markets into one HR system.
Equity advertises vacancies internally first. It offers incentives to staff with critical skills and to those in leadership roles. It is also formalising career paths so technical specialists can move up without becoming managers. Average training rose to 74 hours per employee in 2025 from 45 the previous year. Some generative AI courses are now mandatory for all staff.