QUARTERLY SECTOR STATISTICS FROM CCK

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK)  has released its ICT sector statistics report for the first quarter of the 2011/2012 financial year (i.e. the period up to 30^th September 2011). According to the report, the country had 26.4 million subscribers as at September 30, 2011 which represents a mobile penetration rate of 67.2%.

Prepaid subscription is still the preferred service representing 99% of the total subscribers according to the CCK report. prepaid subscriptions grew by 4.8% while postpaid subscription grew by 1% while in the same period last year there was a 20.4% growth in prepaid subscription and 9.1% growth in postpaid subscription

Safaricom continues to control 88.27% of voice traffic in Kenya up from 87.57%  the previous quarter. Airtel’s voice traffic is reported to have declined by 2.17% to stand at 6.55% while Essar telecom increased its market share by 1.62% to 4.58%. Telkom Kenya’s voice market share declined from 0.75% to 0.6%.

It is surprising that SMS per subscriber per month grew by 124.4% from 8.5 SMS as at June 30 , 2011 to 18.99 SMs as at September 30 last year.

Internet Subscribers also grew from 4.2 Million in June to 5.42 million in September while internet users grew from 12.5 million in June to  14.3million as at September 30, 2011.  Of the 5.42 million internet subscribers, 5.3 million are subscribed to mobile data meaning that 99% of internet subscribers in Kenya are on mobile data. Subscription of mobile data grew by 28.3%.

The report puts mobile money subscribers at 18.4 million with over Ksh 56 billion deposit (US $640 million) as at September 30. The figure indicates that 69.5% of Kenya’s mobile phone subscribers are using mobile money services. This is the highest percentage anywhere in the world.

Fixed line subscriptions reduced from 374,942 to 355,493 representing a 5.91% decline. Fixed line voice traffic reduced by 28.36% to stand at 67 million minutes from 103 million minutes.

Satellite subscriptions now stood at 774 as at September 30 down from 960 in June

From the above summary we can see that the data market is the new front and product diversification is the way to go if anyone is be a success in this market. The 3G mobile market is open as well as mobile application development suited for the continent as 99% of internet subscribers in Kenya are on mobile data. Subscription of mobile data grew by 28.3%.

Download full report here