Voice Calls & Internet Usage Surge In Kenya Despite Mobile Money Dip

New data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) reveals a significant surge in both voice call minutes and mobile data consumption during the second quarter of 2025. The positive trends indicate Kenyans are increasingly relying on digital communication channels, even as the growth rate for the overall Information and Communication sector slightly decelerates.

Massive Jump in Voice Traffic and Data Consumption

According to the KNBS Quarterly Gross Domestic Product report, activities in the Information and Communication sector grew by 6.0 per cent in Q2 2025, compared to 6.7 per cent in the same period in 2024. Despite this slight slowdown in sectoral growth, service usage soared:

• Domestic Voice Traffic: Domestic mobile voice minutes rose sharply by 17.3 per cent, climbing to 29.2 billion minutes from 24.9 billion minutes recorded the previous year.
• International Voice Traffic: International mobile voice traffic saw an even stronger increase, surging by 24.3 per cent to reach 367.5 million minutes.
• Mobile Data Usage: Mobile broadband consumption continued its upward trajectory, increasing by a remarkable 38.4 per cent year-on-year. Kenyans consumed 620.2 million Gigabytes (GB) of data in the quarter, up from 448.2 million GB in Q2 2024. This signals an expansion in the average data consumption per user across the country.

Mobile Money Value Declines, Gender Gap Persists

While digital communication services boomed, the country’s dominant mobile money sector experienced a slight contraction in transactional value:

• Mobile Money Transactions: The total value of mobile money transactions fell by 1.4 per cent, dipping from Ksh 2.11 trillion in Q2 2024 to Ksh 2.08 trillion in Q2 2025. Despite the marginal drop, KNBS emphasized that mobile money remains a critical driver of financial transactions in the Kenyan economy.

The report also reiterated existing concerns over the digital divide. Data from the 2023/24 Kenya Household Survey (KHS) found that men consistently use the internet more than women across all age groups. The gender disparity is most pronounced among the 25 to 34 age group, where 64 per cent of men use the internet compared to 54.5 per cent of women. This age bracket, however, recorded the highest overall internet usage in the country.