Commercial Banking in Colonial Kenya: A Historical Dataset

Commercial Banking in Colonial Kenya: A Historical Dataset is an evolving dataset that compiles archival and primary-source material on the development of commercial banking in Kenya during the colonial period. The dataset brings together systematically extracted and standardised information from bank reports, government records, and contemporary newspapers, covering institutional development, branch expansion, organisational changes, and interactions with African clients and employees. Constructed through a rigorous methodology of data extraction, cross-referencing, and standardisation, the dataset enables both qualitative and quantitative analysis of financial institutions within the broader context of colonial rule, economic change, and processes of Africanisation. It is designed as a scalable and continuously updated research resource, to which additional materials and records will be incorporated over time. This dataset has supported multiple research outputs, including the author’s PhD thesis, the article “Monopoly and competition: the Kenyan commercial banks at the end of the colonial period (1954–1963)” published in Business History (Business History, 2022), and the book Commercial Banking in Kenya: A History from Colonisation to Digital Age (2024). By consolidating dispersed archival materials into a structured format, the dataset contributes to ongoing research in African economic and financial history and promotes transparency, reproducibility, and reuse in historical scholarship.