Its true though, the cartel thing as mentioned in the article

Interest rate cap has two levels of cartels pulling in different directions.

No need to trim the workforce.
Instead the revenue should be increased/revenue per employee.
Currently we know that is being hindered by the interest rates cap law which has reduced the margins.
//I am of the opinion that you don't trim work force to increase income as that is short term and not sustainable.
Rather increase the revenue from your business activities

Both of you have a point. It makes sense to empower your employees to increase revenues per employee BUT there are some employees who might not want to or can easily make the move to the sales approach. Many tellers don't know how to cross-sell. Sales isn't easy. As KCB (or any bank) moves customers to other channels, some functions become redundant. Retraining isn't as easy as it sounds for those already in the system.

Listen my friend.

Staff costs will continue to rise. Why?

Because those being let go are the redundant workers who's jobs have been taken up by digitization but the bank will need to hire techies, developers, database engineers and different kinds of analysts who's pay is not cheap, apart from that these kind of jobs require continuous improvement and training, incentives to make sure the bank retains them etc.

So KCB should concentrate on making more money because staff costs are bound to go up..no question about that.

NAIROBI, April 20 (Reuters) - Kenya's KCB Group, the country's biggest lender by assets, said it has offered employees voluntary early retirement in a bid to save 2 billion shillings ($19.36 million) each year.

KCB, which also operates in five neighbouring countries, had already said it would cut an unspecified number of jobs, mainly due to technological changes and the capping of commercial rates in Kenya last September.

Kenya has been a global pioneer in technological innovations in finance, launching the M-pesa mobile phone cash transfer system a decade ago and the first mobile phone-based bond last month.

The cost of the proposed buyouts, which are being offered in line with local laws, will take a year and a half to recover, KCB said on Thursday.

Staff have a month to apply, and the group plans to complete the exercise in the middle of June, sources at KCB told Reuters.

KCB said the cuts would help it align its staff with a banking industry that had "been dimmed by legislative and regulatory reforms". It also said technological changes were now attracting non-traditional firms into the sector.

Those KCB mpesa loans are expensive yet very convenient plus they increase your loan limit you once you clear a loan on time

Now that a correct measure has been taken to tame the spirallling wage bill,there is this vote called 'Other operating expenses' which should also be addressed.In 2015 it consumed kshs 11,738,084,000.In 2016 it rose to kshs 14,978,945,000 which is 27% increase by kshs 3,240,861,000.
This is the second highest expenditure.
I went through the intergreted report to see its breakdown but couldnt find it.When the least expenditure is ksh 188,292,000 for directors emoluments,i think shareholders should also know the itemized breakdown of this other operating expenses which consumes 14 billion.
I hope we are not blindfolded vice versa.

Loans and advances tops the revenue at kshs 51,208,848,000 followed by govt securities at kshs 10,866,513,000.I think the company should invest more in govt securities to increase this amount.
kcb mpesa mobile loans is classfied as 'other fees and commisions' which generated kshs 6,064,473,000.The company should improve here.They can make more than kshs 10 bilion here if they improve.

Well put...why would it take 24 hours for payment to be settled while mshwari is a few seconds...you pay a loan a few hours later your balance is still the same.