Nairobi, Jan. 5 -- Blue-chip firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) have signalled they will pay higher dividends for their respective financial years, a move that helped fuel the stock market rally seen in 2025.

Safaricom, BAT Kenya, and banks such as Equity Group, Co-operative Bank of Kenya, and NCBA Group are among the companies that have either raised their interim dividends or recorded strong earnings growth, putting them on course to lift total dividend payouts to shareholders.

BAT, for instance, doubled its interim dividend to Sh10 per share for the half year to June 2025 when its net profit surged 39.7 percent to Sh2.98 billion.

The company had paid an interim dividend of Sh5 per share in the prior year's first h...