Somalia: Opportunity for mobile money transfers

Abdirashid Duale is a man with experience in money transfers in sensitive areas. His family-run money transfer business Dahabshiil is one of the most popular in the Horn of Africa, with 400 of its 1000 locations in the region.

Mobile telephony in Somalia

Mr Duale’s majority stake in one of Somalia’s larger telecom providers, SOMTEL, offers an interesting, unexplored opportunity for his MTO Dahabshiil to move towards mobile money transfers. Currently, SOMTEL provides fixed line telephony and plans to roll out mobile service later this year.

Mr Duale hopes to be the first to introduce mobile money transfers in Somalia, where he says mobile networks currently offer limited connectivity. He stresses that Dahabshiil is more likely to be successful in the region because they have experience working in its challenging political environment.

Dahabshiil’s future focus

Dahabshiil has over 150 locations in the UK and works with partners like Coinstar and InstantCash. With growing migration from Africa to the Gulf, Mr Duale says he looks at Dubai as the hub from which he plans to expand his business from Africa and South Asia, particularly India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. “There is a large business community from Africa, buying from the Gulf countries, that we focus on.” Dahabshiil is open to more partnerships with global banks, MTOs and forex companies.

Contracts with non-profit organisations

Interestingly, in Somalia, Dahabshiil has contracts as the preferred money transfer provider for non-profit organisations such as Oxfam, the UN etc. Mr Duale plans to leverage these connections in other African nations where Dahabshiil operates, in order to win similar contracts.