Newly elected President of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo gestures as he makes an address on February 8, 2017 in Mogadishu after he was elected president. He is thought to be a reformist. PHOTO | MUSTAFA HAJI ABDINUR | AFP By PETER KAGWANJA Somalia’s economy and society are rising, like the proverbial Sphinx, from the ashes...
ADDIS ABABA/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – In the weeks since Ethiopia announced sweeping privatization plans after decades of state control, foreign businessmen have been beating a path to Belachew Mekuria’s office. “Everyone is here. MTN is here, Safaricom. I mean everyone is coming,” the new head of the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC) said of the stiff competition...
By Hassan M. Abukar Al-Shabaab has become the big elephant in today’s Somalia—and it’s a force to be reckoned with. While the organization was dislodged militarily from Mogadishu several years ago, it still maintains a sinister presence in the capital. This presence is so threatening that the government’s security forces do not venture into some...
By Maggie Fick and Omar Mohammed NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya built a reputation as a pioneer of financial inclusion through its early adoption of a mobile money system that enables people to transfer cash and make payments on cellphones without a bank account. Now, a proliferation of lenders are using the same technology to extend...
After more than two-and-a-half decades of crippling conflict, Somalia faces the considerable challenge of rebuilding its economy and institutions. This process took an important step as Somalia’s President signed into law a Communications Act providing the tools to regulate a sector that, until recently, had made only a limited, formal contribution to the Somali Treasury,...
By Roshni Majumdar UNITED NATIONS, (IPS) – In February, when the government of Somalia sounded an alarm to the UN about risks of a famine in the country, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), besides quickly shuffling a response team, was acting from a steep sense of history. The Office, instead of sending...
BY ZAINEB MAJOKA, WBG I have been working on assessing Social Protection mechanisms in Somalia for more than a year where we are trying to understand the country’s social protection landscape. In 2011, some 260,000 people died from famine. Given that 51.8 percentage of the population is poor with average daily consumption below $1.9 and 9 percent are internally...
By Yaya J. Fanusie and Alex Entz, Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF) Financial Overview Al-Shabaab – the Somalia-based branch of al-Qaeda (AQ) – currently controls less territory and fewer ports than in years prior, but will likely be able to sustain itself by exploiting the country’s economic activity. Al-Shabaab probably will see its funding grow...
Stabilizing countries that have long been afflicted by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV) – and helping them shape effective reforms to strengthen the investment climate – is one of the most difficult challenges in international development. The task is all the more severe when, as in Somalia, a large proportion of the population has been...
LONDON, On the sidelines of the UK-hosted Conference on Somalia, the Somali government and high level business actors endorsed a Public-Private Cooperation Agreement to Accelerate Somalia’s Economic Recovery. The event was supported by the World Bank Group and the British Department for International Development (DFID) and was opened by His Excellency Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmaajo”, President...