By Mujidu Victor,
Director-General of Communication Authority of Kenya, Ezra Chiloba, has announced that 124,000 sim cards were switched off by the end of March 2022.
Chiloba said the sim cards affected are mostly those acquired illegally, while a few did not meet the minimum requirements set by the government authority to own a sim card.
Following the June 23 report, the authority explained that 124,000 sim card owners did not update their registration details in line with the SIM Card Registration Regulations Act 2015.
Following the Communication Authority (CA) report, the deadline for subscribers to update their registration details was set to be on October 15, 2022.
According to Chiloba, the registration exercise is meant to eradicate criminal activity attached to the use of sim cards.
The quarterly report covering the three months to March showed that the number of active sim cards declined by 124,689 to stand at 64.9 million down from 65.1 million subscriptions in the preceding quarter.
“The decline in SIM subscriptions is partly attributed to the ongoing SIM registration exercise during which a number of SIM cards have been deactivated,” notes the report in part.
However, the laws enacted by the authority also saw mobile penetration drop by 2.5 percentage points to 131.4 percent due to the revision of the country’s population figures from 48.7 million to 49.4 million according to the Economic Survey 2022.
“The report shows that 60.1 million mobile phone devices were connected to mobile networks as of 31st March 2022, out of which 26.5 million were smartphones while 33.6 million were feature phones,
“Subsequently their penetration rates now stand at 54.6 percent and 69.2 percent respectively computed as a percentage of the total population,” the report added.
“Mobile money subscriptions grew to 36.4 million from 35.2 million in the previous quarter, as a result of greater diversification of value proportions by service providers.”
The authority, however, maintained that the rollout of the internet will be enhanced as the August 9 General Election approaches.
“As we approach the electioneering period, the industry is expected to experience increased activity considering that ICTs will be a major facilitator of the General Elections,” CA stated.
