The SIM card registration campaign should help fight cybercrime and fraud in the Kenyan digital space. However, disabling unregistered SIM cards could slow the growth of the industry.

According to statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), active mobile subscriptions stood at 64.7 million in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2021/2022, a decline of 0.44% compared to the 64.9 million recorded in the previous quarter. However, this is an annual growth of 0.46% compared to the 64.4 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020/2021.

“  During the 2021/22 financial year, the mobile telephony segment was marked by a significant regulatory intervention which consisted of updating the registration details of all SIM cards in the country. This exercise resulted in the deactivation of SIM cards registered under incorrect identification details  ,” explains the regulator.

The regulator reported that mobile operators deactivated more than 124,689 improperly registered SIM cards in the first quarter of 2021/2022 and 287,214 SIM cards in the third quarter. The SIM card registration campaign was due to end on April 15, but the regulator had to extend the deadline until October 15 due to the high rate of non-compliance displayed by operators. When the new deadline expired, not all telephone subscribers were still registered. The CA therefore gave operators a further 60 days to complete the operation.

The deactivation of unregistered SIM cards should have a definite impact on the revenues of telecom operators, among others. In 2021, mobile services generated revenues of 315 billion Kenyan shillings (2.6 billion USD), an increase of 12.45% compared to 2020. At the same time, investments in the mobile segment increased by 12.41% to 51.6 billion shillings, compared to 45.9 billion shillings in 2020.

Source: Agence Ecofin