SIM Penetration Jumps Two Points Following Overall Increase in Subscriptions

Mobile (SIM) subscriptions have undergone ups and downs this year. At the end of the fourth quarter of the previous financial year, it emerged that SIM subscriptions dropped by 200K, but the reason for this was that there were some cards that had not taken part in the SIM re-registration exercise.

However, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) extended the deadline to October this year – and even offered a grace period of 90 days after the deadline, which should be ending soon.

The period seeks to see that all SIM cards are properly documented, and those that have not registered them still have a window because those chips can be switched off for non-compliance.

During the quarter under review, which is the first of the 2022/23 Financial Year, there was a notable jump in activity across mobile networks thanks to the August polls.

To this end, active mobile subscriptions (SIM Cards) grew to 65.5 million from 64.7 million recorded in the previous quarter representing a growth of 1.2 percent. This translated to a mobile (SIM) penetration level of 132.5 percent.

In the previous quarter, active mobile subscriptions declined to 64.7 million in 64.9 million recorded during the preceding quarter, translating to a mobile (SIM) penetration level of 130.9 percent.

There were 64.1 million prepaid subscriptions recorded over the quarter, which constituted 97.9 percent of the subscriptions. The 1.3 million postpaid subscriptions constituted 2.1% of the overall subscriptions.

Postpaid

Prepaid

Two telcos don’t offer postpaid services, which are Equitel and Jamii.

For all, Safaricom still leads the pack with substantial numbers.

Lastly, in terms of market share, Safaricom is at the top at 66.0 percent, followed by Airtel at 26.3 percent. Telkom follows as 4.9 percent. Equitel and JTL conclude the list at 2.3 percent and 0.5 percent.