Stanbic Bank Kenya has started processing Renminbi transactions through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, giving Kenyan businesses direct access to one of the world’s most important trade payment networks.
The move plugs Kenya into the same infrastructure that has already carried more than CNY 8 billion, roughly USD 1.2 billion, in transactions for parent company Standard Bank Group over the past year.
Kenya becomes one of six African markets now live on CIPS. Standard Bank Group broke ground in South Africa after the People’s Bank of China approved it in June 2025 at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, the first African bank to receive that authorisation. The rollout has since reached Angola, Ghana, Lesotho and Tanzania, and the bank says it plans to add more countries before the end of 2026.
What Changes for Kenyan Businesses
CIPS lets banks clear and settle Renminbi payments directly, cutting out the US dollar conversion step that normally sits between a Kenyan importer and a Chinese supplier. Fewer conversion steps mean fewer fees, faster settlement and clearer visibility into where a payment sits at any given moment.
Stanbic Bank Kenya says the new capability gives clients faster RMB payments, better tracking, and less reliance on traditional correspondent banking routes to move money to and from China. For a business paying a Chinese factory or receiving payment from a Chinese buyer, that could shave days off a transaction that once passed through several intermediary banks.
China Remains Kenya’s Top Trading Partner
Jonathan Muga, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking at Stanbic Bank Kenya, called the launch a milestone in strengthening the Kenya-China trade corridor. Businesses want faster and more transparent ways to transact, he said, and CIPS access lets Stanbic clients trade with greater speed and confidence, building on Standard Bank Group’s CNY 8 billion in processed transactions.
The bank made the announcement at its 2026 China Day, an event that brought together Chinese investors, diplomats and trade partners to discuss the future of Kenya-China economic ties. The timing reflects more than a single product launch. Standard Bank Group has built an eighteen year partnership with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, its largest shareholder and the world’s largest bank by assets. That relationship recently deepened further: the People’s Bank of China jointly authorised Standard Bank and ICBC to operate as the Renminbi Clearing Bank of Africa, making Standard Bank the first Africa based bank with direct RMB clearing status across nineteen African countries.
Trade Data Backs the Bet on China
Standard Bank Group’s Africa Trade Barometer, a survey of more than two thousand businesses across ten African markets, found that 35 percent of respondents now name Asian markets as their preferred trading partners, up from 24 percent in the previous survey round. Sixty seven percent named China as their leading source of imports, citing competitive pricing, wide product variety and reliable supply chains.
That shift sits inside a broader continental trend. China Africa trade hit a record USD 295 billion in 2024, and Chinese customs data showed trade climbing a further 12.4 percent in the first five months of 2025 to around USD 134 billion. Digital payment methods now handle the majority of cross border transactions surveyed businesses make, a pattern that continental infrastructure like the Pan African Payment and Settlement System is reinforcing by linking up with national payment networks.
Muya Guo, Head of the China Desk at Stanbic Bank Kenya, said Chinese enterprises remain a central focus of the bank’s corporate and investment banking strategy. Drawing on local market expertise, Standard Bank Group’s pan African footprint, and the ICBC partnership, the bank supports Chinese businesses operating in infrastructure, manufacturing, logistics, energy, technology and trade, sectors where China’s presence in Kenya has grown steadily over the past decade.
A Widening Gateway
Kenya’s addition to CIPS fits a pattern Standard Bank Group has been building for a year: start in one market, prove the model, then extend it across the continent. With six African countries now connected and more planned before year end, the bank is betting that faster Renminbi settlement will keep pulling African exporters and importers closer to their largest trading partner.
For Stanbic Bank Kenya, the launch reinforces a broader ambition to position Kenya as a gateway to East Africa, connecting local businesses to international markets through financial infrastructure built to simplify cross border trade rather than complicate it.
