Over 124,000 SIM Cards Deactivated in the Ongoing SIM Registration Exercise

By Jane Muia / Published June 24, 2022 | 2:18 pm

KEY POINTS

The number of active SIM cards declined by 124,689 to stand at 64.9 million in the three months to March 2022, down from 65.1 million subscriptions recorded in a similar period last year.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

60.1 million mobile phone devices were connected to mobile networks out of which 26.5 million were smartphones while 33.6 were feature phones. Similarly, Mobile money subscriptions grew to 36.4 million from 35.2 million in the previous quarter.

The Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) on Wednesday revealed that over 124,000 SIM cards were deactivated by the end of March this year, in the regulator’s bid to tame illegally registered Sim cards which abet cyber crimes in the country.

The Communication Authority of Kenya directive requires all SIM cards to be registered in line with the SIM Card Registration Regulations 2015. The regulator maintains that those who will have not registered their SIM card by 15th October 2022 will see their SIM cards deactivated, as the government continues with the move to tame fraudulent use of SIM cards and improve data accuracy.

CA requires mobile service providers Safaricom, Telkom, and Airtel to retain a copy of the identification documents of every subscriber.

According to CA, the number of active SIM cards declined by 124,689 to stand at 64.9 million in the three months to March 2022, down from 65.1 million subscriptions recorded in a similar period last year.

‘‘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.

At the same time, mobile penetration contracted by 2.5 percentage points to 131.4 percent, owing to the revision of the country’s population figures from 48.7 million to 49.4 million according to the Economic Survey 2022.

During the period under review, 60.1 million mobile phone devices were connected to mobile networks out of which 26.5 million were smartphones while 33.6 were feature phones. Similarly, Mobile money subscriptions grew to 36.4 million from 35.2 million in the previous quarter.

During the same period, the number of internet subscriptions rose to 46.5 million from 46.3 million recorded at the end of December 2021. The number of 3G and 4G mobile broadband subscriptions stood at 12.7 million and 16.7 million respectively.

The report also indicates a drop in the number of cyber threats, by 38.6 percent to stand at 37 million from 66.7 million cases recorded at the end of December 2021.