4 Introduction The ICT sector in Kenya grew at an average of nearly 20 per cent annually from 1999 to 2013. The number of phone subscriptions has grown from the equivalent of one per 1,000 adults in 1999 to nearly one per adult in 2013. Internet usage rates for 2013 were around five for every ten adults. Person-to-person mobile money transactions at the end of 2010 were equivalent to around 20 per cent of the GDP with two of every three Kenyan adults being users. ICT has been one of the main drivers of Kenya’s economic growth over the last decade. Since 2000, Kenya’s economy grew at an average of 3.7 per cent, with ICT being responsible for 0.9 of the 3.7 per cent annual GDP growth, and for all of Kenya’s GDP per capita growth (World Bank). The 2013 statistics show that the ICTs forward and backward linkages have continued to improve, with employment opportunities hitting over 150,000. For instance, there were 103,165 mobile money agents by June 2013. The number, according to the CBK data, has been growing by at least 3,000 agents each month. The rise in the number of agents indicates increased access of mobile money transfer services as well as creation of employment opportunities in ICT. Other areas that are likely to grow exponentially include the broadcasting services when the country fully migrates to the digital platform where over 200 TV channels will be made available, ITES/BPO Services when the first phase of Konza Techno-City is implemented, software and hardware development, among many others. The table below shows performance of ICT in the last nine years. TABLE 6: KEY INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS ECONOMIC INDICATORS Indicator 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 As at 30th Sep 2013 1 Mobile telephony Mobile telephony capacity 6,800,000 10,600,000 18,200,000 25,964,700 29,400,000 46,628,948 47,677,000 49,977,000 55,077,000 Mobile subscribers 6,484,791 9,304,818 12,933,653 17,362,257 19,364,559 24,968,891 26,980,771 30,432,782 31,301,506 Mobile penetration (%) 15.74 21.62 33.65 39 49.7 63.2 68.4 77.2 76.9 Licensed mobile operators 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 4 10,615,386 17,395,727 19,318,684 25,114,462 Mobile money transfer service subscribers Licensed mobile money transfer service operators 1 1 3 5 6 6 6 2 Fixed telephony Fixed line/wire line capacity 513,82 516,993 505,103 512,281 485,581 421,528 400,764 380,135 362,627 Wire line connections 293,364 339,229 527,064 247,972 243,656 226,587 92,275 70,390 58,749 Wireless connections - 84,107 274,449 448,529 429,289 154,161 186,939 177,910 150,590 Total wire line & wireless 293,364 connections 347,226 527,064 696,501 672,945 380,748 279,214 248,300 209,339 Fixed line tele-density (%) 0.86 0.90 1.8 1.7 0.96 0.71 0.63 0.51 3 International outgoing fixed line traffic (minutes) 42,558,605 46,957,348 27,363,876 15,582,304 14,471,643 14,761,211 11,455,952 20,058,628 121,164,636 International incoming fixed line traffic (minutes) 157,836,403 113,692,918 85,672,270 83,148,332 88,538,230 38,550,399 31,866,685 17,796,496 154,885,621 4 Internet and data services Licensed Internet service 72 providers 66 96 108 124 132 141 165 169 Licensed data carrier network operators 3 6 8 12 19 19 20 21 2