Kenya recorded 1.5 million new mobile users from January to March 2019

Kenya’s mobile network operators recorded 1.5 million new active subscriptions in the three months ending March 2019, according to the latest report from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

The net additions have seen the number of active mobile subscriptions hit 51 million up from 49.5 million representing a 3.1 per cent increase. Ownership of multiple SIM cards has seen has seen mobile penetration rise to 106.8 per cent as consumer leverage on the variety of services on offer.

The quarter saw some mobile operators lose their share for mobile subscriptions except Airtel and Mobile Pay. Airtel Kenya’s market went up by 2.7 per centage points to stand at 26.1 per cent. Safaricom’s share shrunk marginally from 63.3 percent to 62.4. Telkom Kenya’s stake dropped from 9.0 to 7.9 per cent even as Finserve Africa (which operates the Equitel brand) shed 0.8 per centage points to stand at 3.4 per cent. Mobile Pay’s market share remained unchanged from last quarter at 0.2 per cent.

The report, covering the period from January – March 2019, also shows a 1.4 per cent increase in the number of active mobile money subscriptions to 32 million up from 31.6 million. The period registered 564.8 million mobile money transfer transactions valued at Kshs 2.1 trillion. Additionally, in mobile commerce, there were 571.5 million transactions valued at Kshs 1.84 trillion. Person-to-person transfers were valued at Kshs 737 billion.

In the data/Internet segment, the number of active subscriptions went up by 2.5 per cent to stand at 46.8 million. It is in broadcasting that the number of free-to-air television channels increased to 81 up from 75 registered in the preceding quarter while radio FM stations remained unchanged at 173.

The National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team (National KE-CIRT) detected 11.2 million cyber threats during the period, up from 10.2 million. In response to the cyber threats detected, 14,078 cyber threat advisories were issued to the affected organizations, which is an increase from the 12,138 advisories issued during the previous period.

In the postal/courier sub-sector, the end of the festive season saw number of items sent locally drop significantly with a total of 716,193 items sent down from 1.1 million the previous quarter according to the report.