Why Kenya’s mobile operators have slowed down on investment

Provisional data in a quarterly industry report by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) shows that mobile network operators have cut their investment budgets by 2.2% in 2012.

A report in the Star says that investment in the industry was down to Sh33.83 billion (approximately $386 million) from the 2011 figure of Sh34.59 billion.

This drop has occurred despite an increase in earnings by Safaricom, Airtel, Essar’s yu and Telkom Orange – which, together, attained Sh133.51 billion (approximately $1.6 billion), 

Revenue and investment data for year 2013 will be updated once mobile operators file their audited accounts after the lapse of their respective financial years.”

The data also reflects an increase of 1.4% in direct employment in June 2013 within the mobile tech industry, representing 5,617 jobs – up from 5 542 in the same period last year.

Other key findings include an increase in the use of internet over mobile phones, which the report claims has risen by 61.19% to over 12,34 million subscriptions in the year to June.

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