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The Communications Authority of Kenya, has announced the deactivation of over 124000 SIM cards as a measure to curb illegally registered cards in the country, a sector report by the regulator has revealed.
According to the latest quarterly report ending March 2022, 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.
Part of the report read, ‘‘The decline in SIM subscriptions is partly attributed to the ongoing SIM registration exercise during which a number of SIM cards have been deactivated.”
Mobile operators in Kenya are required to have updated registration details of their subscribers, in line with the SIM Card Registration Regulations 2015. This move is meant to curb misuse of SIM cards for criminal purposes.
The Authority said the exercise was meant to ensure 100 per cent compliance with the SIM Card Registration Regulations, which, among other things, require operators to retain a copy of identification documents of every subscriber.
The deadline for subscribers to update their registration details is 15th October 2022.
The report also shows that in the period, 60.1 million mobile phone devices were connected to mobile networks, out of which 26.5 million were smart phones while 33.6 million were feature phones.
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.
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