The value of telecommunications gadgets imported into Kenya surged 76.7 percent to hit a record Sh20.7 billion in the first half of this year, up from Sh11.7 billion in a similar window of 2022, buoyed by demand.
Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that April accounted for the bulk of the shipments worth a record Sh4.9 billion for a single month--pointing to a heightened appetite for electronic devices as a bigger population in the country becomes more tech-savvy.
According to KNBS, telecommunications equipment includes computers, laptops, smartphones as well as networking equipment that’s inclusive of their parts and accessories such as microphones, electric sound amplifier sets, television cameras, digital or video camera recorders, and radio and TV transmission apparatus, among others.
The latest jump in imports comes at a time when there’s growing internet usage within the Kenyan landscape in addition to an increasingly expanding penetration of smart gadgets in the wake of a sweeping digital revolution that has placed the country as a prime market for such products.
Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows that Kenyans abandoned the active use of 628,818 feature phones during the first quarter of this year, in favour of smartphones whose uptake grew by 886,884 during the same period.
Smartphone penetration first overtook that of feature phones in the Kenyan market in September last year when the former hit 32.63 million after users bought 2.9 million more devices in just nine months, while the latter stood at 32.04 million.
The historic surge in the value of tech imports comes despite Kenya unveiling its first-ever mobile phone assembly plant as part of government-led efforts aimed at hastening the adoption pace of smart gadgets.
Technology and innovation pundits have in the recent past attributed the growing ICT equipment imports to the country’s growing youthful population, who are arguably more tech-savvy and innovative than older generations.
Technology lawyer Tim Dagori told Business Daily in a July interview that in addition to the growth in innovations, the ballooned imports could also trace their causation to the rise of remote work models that came with the outbreak of the Covid-19 crisis.
“Covid-19 accelerated things like remote working and e-learning that in turn led to demand for digital devices,” said Mr Dagori who is also an ex-director at the innovation incubation centre, iHub.
“It made participation in the online space not just important but urgent. It is how Kenyans connected, shopped, worshipped, worked, and attended school. This has become the norm now, with many adopting a hybrid approach post-Covid.”
The easing of the pressure on the local currency for the better part of the year has also been seen by analysts as an incentive for imports of both producer and consumer products across multiple sectors.
KNBS data shows that the equipment imports were at the lowest during the first half of 2021 after the value dropped 17.5 percent to Sh8.8 billion from Sh10.7 billion during a corresponding period the previous year, in what was largely seen as an aftermath of the supply chain disruptions brought to the fore by Covid-19.
