Nairobi — The Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) has disclosed that there has been a 3.1 percent drop in mobile money subscriptions in the country.
According to the latest statistics, mobile money subscriptions dropped to stand at 38 million as of December 23, 2023, which is a 0.6 million decrease from what was recorded in the same period in 2022.
The Authority has accredited the decline to the reducing number of mobile (SIM) subscriptions, which has in turn resulted in fewer people accessing mobile money services such as M-Pesa and Airtel Money.
“As of 30th December 2023, mobile money subscriptions dropped to stand at 38.0 translating to a penetration rate of 75.1 percent,” CA wrote in the report.
“The decline is attributed to the drop in number of mobile (SIM) subscriptions,” it added.
There was a 0.4 million drop in the number of mobile subscriptions, a situation the authority links to high churn vis-à-vis acquisitions in mobile networks such as Telkom Kenya Mobile, which saw a 0.8 percent decrease in mobile penetration rate.
In their latest statistics, Safaricom led the race in mobile subscriptions, recording 44.13 million, followed by Airtel with 19.39 million, Telkom with 1.34 million, Equitel with 1.5 million, and JTL with 498,068 subscriptions.