NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, July 10, 2017

Telecommunications firm Airtel Kenya lost a massive five million mobile money subscribers in just three months to March 2017, latest figures from the industry regulator show. Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) says the operator is now left with 1.7 million subscribers compared to 6.7 million customers it had registered by end of December 2016. This is nearly three quarters (74 per cent) of what the mobile operator had as at the end of December 2016, casting doubts on the future of the firm in the market where the industry is increasingly being driven by mobile banking. Airtel Kenya, which is owned by Indian tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal, also lost half a million customers on its voice and data network during the quarter.

The firm’s subscribers stood at 6.3 million in March, a decline from 6.8 million in December, which the regulator attributed to the revision of a popular offering by the operator resulting in customers slowing down on use of its products.