Nairobi, March 22 -- KCB Group is letting go of the National Bank of Kenya (NBK) about four years after the acquisition in a development that underlines the pressure that the loss-making unit had brought upon the more than 100-year-old lender.

KCB's board had since September last year toyed with different ideas including putting in an additional capital - something it had done on several occasions before. But NBK looked like a bottomless pit.

KCB finance director Lawrence Kimathi said KCB had sunk about Sh14 billion into NBK since acquiring it in December 2019.

Keeping NBK would have required KCB to inject in between Sh5 billion and Sh8 billion as additional cash to comply with Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) minimum capital ratios and als...