Financial services leaders across Africa are entering 2026 with renewed confidence, placing artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, regulatory resilience and strategic growth at the centre of their transformation agendas. This is according to insights from KPMG’s 2025 Global CEO Outlook, with a focus on the Banking and Capital Markets, and Insurance sectors.
Despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, economic volatility and regulatory complexity, CEOs across both sectors are demonstrating strong appetite for growth and technology-led reinvention.
Insurance: Confidence rising as technology and sustainability reshape the sector
Insurance CEOs are increasingly confident in their organisations’ growth prospects. Globally, 82% of insurance CEOs are confident in their company’s growth, up from 74% in 2024, a significant year-on-year increase. Expansion across health, life, and specialty lines, including cyber and business interruption, is contributing to improved earnings and sector momentum.
AI adoption is accelerating across underwriting, onboarding, claims processing and cyber defence. Globally, 67% of CEOs expect returns from AI investments within one to three years, compared to 21% last year, and two thirds plan to allocate 10–20% of their budgets towards AI initiatives.
Workforce transformation is a parallel priority. Seventy-seven percent of global insurance CEOs cite AI workforce readiness and upskilling as a top constraint on growth, while 83% say AI is reshaping training and development, and 79% believe it is changing the skills required for entry-level roles.
Sustainability and ESG compliance remain high on the agenda, particularly as regulatory standards tighten globally. More than half (55%) of global insurance CEOs identify ESG reporting and compliance as their primary ESG priority. Given that many African regulatory frameworks follow European trends, this is a critical area of focus for insurers across the continent.
Cyber risk remains a dominant concern. Eighty-three percent of insurance CEOs identify cybercrime as the biggest barrier to organisational growth, with cybersecurity and digital risk resilience ranking as the leading area for risk mitigation investment.
Mark Danckwerts, Head of Insurance, KPMG One Africa said:
“Insurance leaders across Africa are navigating a complex operating environment, but they are doing so from a position of growing confidence. AI presents enormous opportunity to improve efficiency, risk assessment and customer engagement. However, sustainable success will depend on responsible adoption, workforce readiness, and strong cyber resilience. Insurers that balance innovation with trust will be best placed to outperform.”
The appetite for inorganic growth remains strong, with the insurance sector showing one of the highest levels of high-impact mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity globally, a trend reflected in several African markets in recent years.
Banking and Capital Markets: AI at the heart of strategic reinvention
For banks across Africa, AI is the predominant theme shaping CEO priorities.
“Technology, in particular AI, presents a huge opportunity, but also a challenge in terms of where to prioritise, how to achieve a measurable return on investment (ROI), and how to ensure responsible and safe adoption to maintain trust,” said Pierre Fourie, KPMG One Africa Head of Financial Services.
“Banks need to modernise legacy IT, cope with rising financial crime risk, made more difficult by sophisticated scams using AI, address new competitive threats from fintechs and nimble, cloud-native banks, and comply with complex and changing regulations.”
AI is seen as both an enabler and a risk amplifier. It can significantly enhance customer engagement and deepen understanding of customer needs, yet banks must guard against depersonalising interactions and losing the human touch. At the same time, AI raises the cyber threat landscape while also strengthening banks’ ability to detect and defend against bad actors.
The scale of planned investment is notable:
- 70% of banking CEOs expect to spend 10–20% of their budgets on AI in the next 12 months.
- 69% expect ROI from AI investments within one to three years, up sharply from 13% last year.
- 78% say AI workforce readiness or AI upskilling could negatively impact the organisation if not adequately addressed.
The top five trends negatively impacting organisational prosperity in banking are:
- 86% – Cybercrime and cyber insecurity
- 78% – AI workforce readiness
- 77% – Successful integration of AI into business processes
- 75% – Competition for AI talent
- 75% – Cost of technology infrastructure
Fourie added: “For African banks, AI is not a theoretical discussion — it is a strategic imperative. The ability to integrate AI into core processes, manage cyber risk and build the right talent base will determine competitive advantage. At the same time, banks must modernise legacy systems and manage infrastructure costs, all while protecting trust in an increasingly digital ecosystem.”
Inorganic growth also remains firmly on the agenda. Appetite for strategic transactions is high, with CEOs seeking differentiation through innovation, customer experience and new business models. Notably, 25% of banking CEOs identify ‘strategic differentiation’ as the primary driver of AI adoption, signalling that technology investment is increasingly linked to long-term competitive positioning rather than short-term efficiency alone.
A Pan-African moment for financial services transformation
Across both insurance and banking, a common theme emerges: confidence underpinned by disciplined transformation. AI investment is accelerating, cybersecurity is paramount, ESG compliance is rising in importance, and M&A remains a lever for scale and capability.
For African financial institutions, the challenge, and opportunity, lies in balancing innovation with resilience, and growth with governance.