The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), which oversees the ICT industry in the country, has released its latest report for the last/fourth quarter of the 2022/2023 financial year. According to the regulator, active mobile (SIM) subscriptions increased by 0.6 percent, reaching 66.4 million as of June 30, 2023, compared to the previous quarter’s 66.1 million. This resulted in a mobile (SIM) penetration rate of 131.3%. The relatively sluggish growth in mobile subscriptions over the year can be attributed to the SIM registration campaign that began in February 2022 and had a deadline of October 2022, leading to the deactivation of unregistered SIM cards.
Most Kenyans use pre-paid services, with over 65.1 sim cards on this subscription. This represented 98.1% of SIM card subscriptions against 1.2 million post-paid subscriptions.
Here are the numbers per telco for the quarter under assessment:
| Operator | Pre-paid | Post-paid |
| Safaricom | 42.7 million | 1.1 million |
| Airtel Kenya | 17.98 million | 92K |
| Telkom Kenya | 2.5 million | 11K |
| Equitel | 1.5 million | – |
| Jamii Telecom | 411K | – |
It is worth noting that all the telcos lost a substantial number of post-paid customers compared to the previous quarter ended in March 2023.
| Operator | Post-paid Q3 | Post-paid Q4 |
| Safaricom | 1,215,172 | 1,166,545 |
| Airtel Kenya | 95,434 | 92,457 |
| Telkom Kenya | 12,588 | 11,543 |
Based on the numbers above, Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya lost 48,627; 2,977; and 979 post-paid customers, respectively, totaling 52,583 customers.
