Economic activities back to Mogadishu

[Chimera]

 

MOGADISHU, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Life is slowly but surely returning to the Somali capital Mogadishu a city had been not long ago synonymous with chaos and anarchy.

 

Business activities are markedly booming as people reopen shops and local traders are importing goods as far as the Gulf State of United Arab Emirates and China after security improved in the capital since last year's withdrawal of Al-Shabaab.

 

Hassan Ali is one of the local traders at Mogadishu's Bakara markets. He says economic activities are gradually returning traders are bringing various goods from different countries.

 

"At Bakara market business is growing. We sell various goods we import from many different countries mainly in Asia such as United Arab Emirates, Oman, China and Indonesia. Trade is really booming here," Ali told Xinhua in a recent interview as he worked in his grocery shop in Bakara market.

 

Somalis in the Diaspora have been pouring into the country as security improved and investment by Somalis from overseas have increased as many of the start-ups.

 

Hundreds of people displaced by the fighting in Mogadishu have returned to their homes. Schools and other government buildings are under reconstruction while roads in the city have been repaired. Local crafts trade have also picked up with many wares on sale in a number of markets that have been reopened in the capital Mogadishu.

 

Asli Abdulleh, a trader of house utensils, says work still needs to be done to restructure the main Bakara and that tax collection needs to be organized.

 

"Trade is doing fairly ok but the market, although it was organized and many squatter structures were destroyed, a lot need to be done because it is not organized. Government needs to do something about this," Abdulleh told Xinhua outside his store in Mogadishu.

 

Somali government has made it a priority to reopen markets in Mogadishu and several markets of various sizes were reopened after security improved in most of the districts in Mogadishu.

 

Both imported goods and locally produced agricultural products are brought to the markets. The main Mogadishu sea and airport are operating and essential imports arrive at the markets on a daily bases.

 

Hassan Mohamed, a trader of plastic wares is optimistic about the future of the economy of the country and that of Mogadishu in particular. He says the movement and betterment of people's situation has taken a life of its own and will self-perpetuate for good.

 

"As a long-time trader at this market, I imported goods from many countries including U.A.E and China. I think we have come out of the dark days and Somali people have now come to realize that we need to improve ourselves by ourselves and not wait for outside world to come and do things for us. There is no turning back for us, we have to mark ahead," Mohamed said as he organized his sat in his shop in Bakara market.

 

Somalia has been through two decades of civil conflict and most state and economic infrastructures were destroyed.

 

But following the defeat of the radical group of Al-Shabaab and their subsequent withdrawal from Mogadishu last year social and economic life has been witnessing resurgence.

 

The reopening of businesses and the start-ups of new ones in various streets and markets in Mogadishu and the construct boom all over the seaside city has become a familiar sight of the Somali capital instead of the daily shelling, suicide attacks and constant gunfire for which it was notoriously known as the most dangerous city in the world.

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[Chimera]

 

 

Liban Egal is the founder of First Somali Bank, which recently opened in Mogadishu and is the first commercial bank in the city since the government collapsed 21 years ago. He emigrated from Somalia in 1988 and spent the next 20 years in America, starting a string of businesses in Baltimore, Maryland. Liban visited his hometown last August and found a world of opportunity, but realized that a lack of proper banking infrastructure was limiting investment and rebuilding.

[Maarodi]

 

 

 

Literally, true story.

[DoctorKenney]

Bakara Market has the potential to be the most diverse and prosperous market in Africa. You can find almost anything there, and if the Government starts regulating and cleaning up the place, it would blow Eastleigh away

[Chimera]

Bakara Market has to be slowly leveled to the ground, and a new Central Business District should take its place in stages, with large malls, convention centers, hotels and business headquarters. This informal economic nonsense has to end! Its vital tax-revenue the Federal government never gets its hands on and which could have been used for new infrastructure, and delivering services.

 

Unacceptable if we want to prosper.

[Haatu]

I agree. We can't have a 'market' as our economic hub.

[Macallinka]

Liban Egal AKA Af-Canjeero is doing great things in Mogadishu. The amount of ideas that this young guy has in unbelievable and its not only just ideas the guy is implementing 4 to 6 business simultaneously after all he is a business developer .

 

We need guys like Egal to rebuild this country! Guyz come back to your country needs , your brothers and sisters are in need of your expertise .

[General Duke]

Mogadishu is doing much better now days. I have first hand account of the transformation that is taking place. May Allah make it develop even faster and better.

[Chimera]

^Apophis, you're on a Muslim majority forum, please respect our beliefs. We do not need your recognition, or approval, but at the same time we do not need you derailing topics with such statements.

[Haatu]

Apophis, you're an atheist, we get it. No need to shove it down our throats sxb

[oba hiloowlow]

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[Chimera]

Mogadishu vehicles to be registered after 20 years of chaos

 

Somalia's transportation ministry has announced all vehicles in the capital Mogadishu will be offered official registration.

 

Mr Mohamed Osman Ali, the ministry's director general said that vehicles using roads in Mogadishu must have documentation of ownership among other details.

 

"The document will bear out who owns each vehicle,” said Mr Ali.

 

"No motorised means of transport will be allowed to shuttle along the roads without proper documentation."

 

According to security officers in Mogadishu, there have been no proper records of transfer of vehicle ownership over the past two decades, generating confusion and security risks in the country.

 

"Some vehicles were imported with a set of documents showing the buyer,” said Mr Ali, while others underwent several changes of ownership without any documentation.

 

"The new ministerial directive will help the security apparatus to identify wrongdoers during checks," said Mr Ali who said his ministry had acted on request of government departments dealing with internal security.

 

In September, a large number of traffic police received training in Mogadishu for the first time following over 20 years of chaos.

 

"Both the police and the public must be enlightened to better understand the traffic rules,” said Gene Ali Hersi Barre at the end of the training organised by Somali Channel, a largely Somali news TV broadcaster.

 

Since the collapse of the central government in 1991, state institutions have failed to function properly.

 

The new federal government is attempting to revive strategic organs such as those dealing with law enforcement and the judiciary.

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[Chimera]

As the reconstituted Central Bank of Somalia fully assumes its monetary policy responsibilities, some of the existing money transfer companies are expected in the near future to seek licenses so as to develop into full-fledged commercial banks.

 

Yemen's Saba Islamic Bank and Djibouti-based Dahabshil Bank are both planning to start operations in Somalia next year

 

Speaking on the sidelines of the Islamic Banking Summit Africa in Djibouti, Basel Haj-Issa, who took over as CEO of Saba Islamic Bank five months ago, explained that client demand is driving the bank's expansion into Somalia.

 

"Djibouti does a lot of trade with Somalia, and many of our clients need our Islamic services in the country, Haj-Issa told Islamic Business & Finance. "They [our clients] have been coming to us and asking why we do not have a presence in Somalia."

 

Dahabshil Bank, which is a subsidiary of Dahabshil Remittance Service, was established in 2010 to be the main bank for all Somalis after the collapse of the country's central government left Somalia without an official banking institution.

 

"We started in Somalia, and now there has been a period of intense reconstruction it is time to go back," Suleiman Walhad told Islamic Business & Finance. "The potential there is huge. Most people are Muslim and, given all that has happened there, they are not likely to trust anything other than an Islamic bank."

 

Haj-Issa also commented on Somalia's potential. "At first when the bank told me its plans I was surprised – but then I looked into it and most of the troubles are in concentrated areas – and these are the places that everyone hears about. North Somalia is actually very peaceful."

 

Dahabshil Bank will concentrate on trade finance, while Saba Bank plans to focus on commercial banking as there is little demand for retail services in Somalia. "Cash is king," said Walhad. "There is a culture of trade and cash, and consumers do not like to go through banks, so there is only commercial banking."

 

According to the CIA and the Central Bank of Somalia, despite experiencing civil unrest, Somalia has maintained a healthy informal economy, based mainly on livestock, remittance/money transfer companies and telecommunications. Due to a dearth of formal government statistics and the recent civil war, it is difficult to gauge the size or growth of the economy.

 

Although Somalia has had no central monetary authority for more than 15 years between the outbreak of the civil war in 1991 and the subsequent re-establishment of the Central Bank of Somalia in 2009, the nation's payment system is fairly advanced primarily due to the widespread existence of private money transfer operators (MTO) that have acted as informal banking networks.

 

As the reconstituted Central Bank of Somalia fully assumes its monetary policy responsibilities, some of the existing money transfer companies are expected in the near future to seek licenses so as to develop into full-fledged commercial banks.

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[Chimera]

[Chimera]

Somali capital braces for business boom with improved security

By Chrispinus Omar

MOGADISHU, April 26 (Xinhua) -- There are signs businesses are getting a new lease of life in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The sheer numbers of newly-opened beauty parlors and newly erected business signage around the ruined city affirm the determination of a nation to turn a new chapter after 22 years of civil war.

The financial sector appears to have thrived the most during the country's slightly over two decades of war.

The scale of the expansion registered by the locally incorporated money transfer services that have kept the country's 10 million people going during the war is not in doubt throughout Mogadishu.

Ladan Express, one of the indigenous Somali cash transfer service providers opened in 2009, is already extending its presence in the Horn of Africa country.

The money transfer service firm is slowly molding into a local commercial bank, Ladan Express Bank. The others also follow suit, the Al Mushtaqbul... The long queues of petroleum tankers snaking its way to more than 2 km off the main seaport and the number of trucks loaded with freight waiting to deliver supplies outside the city is a sign of new life.

"What we are experiencing is a new window," Ahmed Abdi Kaarie, the deputy director of the Mogadishu Seaport, said in a recent interview in the capital.

"You can tell that there is need for foreign investments everywhere. We need professional companies to assist us in evaluating what is required," he added.

Somali President Sheikh Hassan Mohamoud is more excited about the pace of progress, but worries that the newly found vibrancy on the streets of the capital might be lost if stability is not restored.

The kind of stability he envisions is more permanent, backed by the institutions that his country is rebuilding.

"We feel if we do not succeed soon to achieve a relatively secure Somalia, we might not move," he warned.

The Somali leader said a number of business laws have been presented before parliament to get the economy going after several years of inactivity.

Among the laws and business legislation his administration is prioritizing are those dealing with the private sector.

The government has also put before parliament a proposed petroleum law, a separate bill to govern the minerals sector and another law on the fisheries sector.

"Some of these laws have been re-modeled. Some of them are new, some are law reviews and we hope that once they have been endorsed, we can move forward again," President Mohamoud said.

"We need international partners. We are focusing on privatization. The private partnership is the way forward for Somalia," he explained.

Talks are already underway with several foreign firms to secure stakes in the country's seaport. Port officials did not disclose any names, saying the negotiations were ongoing with the government.

The Somali President said apart from working harder to implement his election pledge, which comprises six pillars and which he has narrowed down to just two broad themes, capturing security and the institutional reforms, his government is also working on revitalizing bilateral ties with foreign governments.

Before a meeting with the Somali president last week, he had to receive credentials from two European diplomats. In total, a record number of 30 diplomats have been accredited to Mogadishu in recent months.

"We are going to make our financial sector reforms to work," the president said, speaking of his six-pillar agenda that lays emphasis on reforming the security sector, public sector reforms and enhancing transparency in the management of the public finance to effectively deal with corruption.

Somalia is casting his fishing net wider across the world. The president's plea is for the world's maritime giants to take advantage of Somalia's vast maritime resources, explorers to venture into mining and for the neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, to encourage the Somali entrepreneurial acumen.

"Somalia is a land of opportunities. We have 3,300 km of coastal line that gives us an opportunity to develop our maritime capacity. We have 10 million people and we have 8 million hectares of farmland. This is a very rich country. The people of this country have not benefited. We need stability," the president said.

The president's list of pro-business law reforms run deep, but he remains upbeat that a major step towards achieving his dream of reforming the judiciary has made a big leap forward in recent weeks.

"We have just completed a meeting with all the Somali lawyers and people from various sectors to discuss judicial reforms. This meeting has already proposed a list of priorities that would help us move forward with the reform of the courts and how things would be done in future," he said.

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