Editor's Review

Mobile money transferred between subscribers increased by 19.6 percent. 

A report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has revealed that the number of mobile money transfer subscribers decreased by six hundred thousand from 38.6 million in 2022 to 38.0 million in 2023.

In the report released on Monday, May 20, KNBS noted that the ICT sector recorded a growth of 5.8 percent in 2023.

Despite the decrease in the number of mobile money transfer subscribers, mobile money transferred between subscribers increased by 19.6 percent to Ksh 5.5 trillion in 2023.

The KNBS report also indicated that domestic calls traffic increased by 13.4 percent to 88.8 billion minutes in 2023.

On the other hand, 1.7 billion cybercrime cases were reported in 2023 a rise from 700 million in 2022. According to KNBS, the bulk of these cybercrime incidents were attributed to system vulnerabilities.

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A screengrab image of the KNBS 2024 economic survey. 

At the same time, the KNBS survey revealed that the total volume of petroleum products imported into the country declined by 27.6% to 4.3 million tonnes in 2023.

The total domestic demand for petroleum products remained relatively at the same level as in 2022 at 5.1 million tonnes in 2023.

However, the average annual price of the OPEC reference basket crude oil was USD 82.89 per barrel; a decrease from USD 99.90 per barrel in 2022.

The electricity demand according to KNBS increased from 12,985.4 GWh in 2022 to 13,423.6 GWh in 2023.

The total installed electricity generating capacity decreased from 3,321.3 megawatts in 2022 to 3,243.6 megawatts in 2023.