This archive report was first published on 23 June 2020.
Published on June 23, 2020, Airtel Africa's report highlights Kenya's unique mobile penetration, with 62 percent of the population owning a mobile phone.
This statistic surpasses other regional markets, including Zambia (54 percent), Tanzania (49 percent), Nigeria (45 percent), Uganda (42 percent), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (39 percent).
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) attributes the high mobile uptake to multiple SIM card ownership, with 55 million SIM cards in circulation compared to the country's population of 49 million people in 2019.
"Mobile (SIM) penetration in the country remains high partly due to multiple SIM ownership by consumers," CA said in its report for the quarter ended December 2019.
"Moreover, because Kenyan consumers are becoming more price-point sensitive, they are likely to continue acquiring multiple SIM cards in a bid to benefit from the various special plans offered by various operators."
Mobile number portability, which allows customers to migrate to another telco without changing their number, has had a dismal uptake, failing to solve the problem of multiple SIM card ownership.
