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Airtel Kenya User Numbers Jump 71% 

Airtel Kenya User Numbers Jump 71% 

(Bloomberg) -- Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s Kenya unit increased subscriber numbers and gained market share in the 12 months through September, supported by higher voice, mobile data and money transfer transactions.

Airtel Kenya Ltd.’s users rose almost 71 percent to 10.4 million, lifting its overall market share by 7.4 percentage points to 22.3 percent by the end of September, the Communications Authority said in a report emailed Tuesday from the capital, Nairobi. The company’s voice and mobile data market shares increased to 33.3 percent and 21.9 percent respectively.

Rival Safaricom Plc. shed 7.7 percentage points in overall market share to 64.2 percent, undermined by a decline in mobile data and voice usage. Subscriber numbers grew 1.8 percent to 29.9 million users. The company remains the dominant player in mobile-money transactions, which rose almost 19 percent to 1.59 trillion shillings ($15.5 billion) in the year, accounting for 78 percent of such transactions.

“The value of mobile money transactions hit the 2 trillion-shilling milestone for the first time, even as mobile penetration shot to the 100 percent mark,” the industry regulator said of transactions by all the companies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bella Genga in Nairobi at bgenga2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, Jacqueline Mackenzie

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