The latest Economic Survey data came from the Kenya National Statistics Office. It shows that Kenya’s digital economy grew a lot in 2023. And, digital use rose in the industry.
The ICT sector’s output value in Kenya increased by 5.8% to 640.2 billion Kenyan shillings ($4.8 billion). This reflects the country’s quick move to digitalization across economic sectors. Kenyans talked for 88.8 billion minutes, from the prior year’s 2.2% decline. While texting grew by 2.3% to 52.4 billion messages as usage normalized following a pandemic-era spike.
Mobile Penetration Plateaus
As expected, the growth of mobile subscribers slowed. Their numbers increased modestly from 65.7 million in 2022 to 66.7 million in 2023. This indicates market saturation after a decade of exponential growth. Also, the number of mobile money accounts dropped by over 600 thousand, a 2.6% fall from 38.6 million to 38 million in 2023. But, cash transfers grew by 5.5% to sh5.5 trillion. The drop revealed a plateauing mobile money market.
Traditional banks have improved their digital offerings. They have also increased cross-platform integration. This may have reduced the many mobile wallet options customers had. These are signs of a maturing market.
Fiber Broadband Build-out Accelerates
The need for fast internet has grown. As more of people’s daily activities rely more on the internet for participation in the digital economy. This includes government services and job execution.
Total fiber bandwidth increased 44.5% to 17.3 million megabits per second in 2023. Telecom companies spent billions of shillings to upgrade their core networks. Consumption also grew to 11 Tbps (terabits per second). This shows a quickly changing digital economy and ecosystem.
More businesses are using cloud platforms and video streaming services. This is driving demand for broadband. Subscriptions climbed 22.5% to 1 million in 2023. Fiber-to-the-home accounted for 73.5% of connections, up from 67.7% a year earlier.
Recent outages were caused by undersea cables that provide internet. They caused huge disruptions for the country. This country has become one of the leaders in broadband on the continent. Erik Muthoni, a Johannesburg-based analyst at Data Consultco, commented that. The focus is on last-mile fiber. It is allowing more homes and businesses to access fast, reliable connectivity. This kind of connection is a basic need. It is needed for economic participation in today’s digital era.”
New players, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, are pushing hard to enter the country. The country saw the number of fixed and wireless broadband subscriptions increase by 14.9% to 37.8 million in 2023. Mobile broadband accounted for 96.5% of subscriptions. This highlights how pivotal mobile networks have become for internet access.
Cybersecurity Risks Intensify
With connectivity, comes cybersecurity risks. Last year saw a 276% increase in cybersecurity incidents. This was from the previous year.
The growth of always-on devices and cloud connectivity has increased the attack surface. It needs monitoring and security. This was echoed by Savannah Tech’s Kwamboka. Internet users need to have good online and security hygiene. This will help them avoid heightened exposure.
They can reduce risk by updating software often. They can also use secure passwords and avoid sharing them.
Telecom Operators Invest to Meet Demand
Operators raised their capital spending by 13.9% to 58.9 billion Kenyan shillings in 2023. They did this to upgrade networks and speed up 4G and 5G deployments. Revenue from services climbed 7.7% to 339.5 billion shillings. The rise was due to the growing demand for data plans and the adoption of new digital offerings.
The rollout of next-generation mobile networks continues gaining steam. 3G remains the main technology with 112,584 transceivers deployed in 2023, up 7.4%. But, the 4G network grew faster. Operators installed 62.2% more 4G radios year-over-year, reaching 93,240 nationwide.
Kenya is also an early mover in 5G. The survey reported 2,796 fifth-generation mobile radios on air by the end of 2023. This was a big jump from just 102 a year earlier.
“Revenue from voice and SMS is flattening,” said Muthoni. “So, telcos are banking on data and digital services for their next growth stage.” Building out fast mobile networks is key. But, they’ll need to keep investing billions to meet data demands cheaply.”
Print Newspapers Lose More Ground
Kenya has transitioned to digital media. Print newspaper circulation volumes continued to fall in 2023. The number of English daily newspapers fell by 4.3% to 42.2 million copies. Circulation of Kiswahili weeklies dropped 3.5% to 2.6 million.
In contrast, daily online readership grew. It grew by 4.4% to 4.9 million visitors. This growth happened in the week when Kenya’s Business Daily raised prices for its online e-paper by 120%. Kenyans’ media habits are changing. They are now using smartphones, tablets, and PCs for news and entertainment.
“Kenya has cheap mobile data and more free public WiFi,” said Kwamboka. “This has sped up the cord-cutting trend.” Traditional print players must pivot to digital. If they don’t, they risk being left behind.”
