Barely eight months after combining with Diamond Bank to become Nigeria’s biggest lender, Access Bank Plc, is set to acquire a Kenyan lender.

According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, the Competition Authority of Kenya has given Access Bank the go-ahead to acquire 93.57 per cent of Transnational Bank Ltd., amid ongoing consolidation in the East African nation’s banking industry.

Access Bank Plc’s purchase follows the merger of NIC Group Plc and Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., and KCB Group Ltd.’s acquisition of National Bank of Kenya Ltd. earlier this year. Access Bank thus joins other Nigerian lenders, Guaranty Trust Bank Ltd. and United Bank of Africa Plc in operating in the Kenyan market.

The news agency notes that the deal bodes well for the Central Bank of Kenya’s push for consolidation in an industry of more than 40 lenders and a population of almost 50 million people. Kenya has more banks per person than South Africa and Nigeria, Africa’s two largest economies.

In the past two years, SBM Holdings Ltd. of Mauritius bought up some of the assets of Chase Bank Kenya Ltd. and the entire capital of Fidelity Commercial Bank Ltd.

Transnational, which swung to a full-year pretax loss of 98.5 million shillings ($951,690) in 2018, lends mainly to the agricultural sector, according to its annual report. Non-performing loans ballooned 58% to 1.85 billion shillings, while loans rose 0.5% to 6.63 billion shillings, it said.

Access Bank, on Friday, released its nine months ended September 30, 2019, result, which shows that the lender posted a growth of 44 per cent in profit after tax (PAT) to N90.7 billion in 2019, up from N62.9 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.

The result also indicates that Access Bank ended the period with net interest income of N210 billion, compared with N123 billion in 2018, while non-fee income rose from N37 billion to N56 billion. Impairment charges stood at N10.611 billion, compared with N8.353 billion in 2018.

Personal expenses went up from N41.4 billion to N54.6 billion, while other operating expenses increased from N82 billion to N121 billion in 2019. Despite the high costs recorded, Access Bank Plc posted a profit before tax of N103 billion in 2019, up from N70.2 billion in 2018, while PAT rose by 44 per cent to N90.7 billion, from N62.9 billion in 2018.

Analysts point out that Access Bank’s merger with defunct Diamond Bank is impacting positively on its balance sheet as the nine months ended September 30, 2019 result shows deposits soared from N2.56 trillion to N4.24 trillion, while loans and advances improved from N1.993 trillion. Total assets jumped from N4.942 trillion to N6.58 trillion.