Friday July 17, 2026
Mogadishu (AX) — Somalia’s federal Cabinet has moved to dissolve the board of the Somali Chamber of Commerce and Industry, removing its chairman, Mahmoud Abdikarin Gabeyre, in a decision the chamber has swiftly denounced as unlawful.
The measure was approved at the Cabinet’s weekly meeting on Thursday, chaired by Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, following a proposal submitted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The Cabinet named Yasin Mahmoud Ibaar as the chamber’s interim chairman.
Ministers directed the interim chairman to develop election procedures over the next two years and oversee the creation of a new board for the Somali Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The chamber, however, rejected the Cabinet’s action.
At a Thursday news conference in Mogadishu, the chamber’s deputy chairman, Abdirahman Abdullahi Aden Galaanbi, said the government had overstepped its legal authority.
“The Chamber of Commerce is not directly under the government, nor is it an institution that the government can dismiss its leaders,” Galaanbi said. “It is an independent institution with its own rules and election process. The Federal Government of Somalia only has oversight over us.”
Galaanbi said the current chamber leadership still has eight months left in office. Once that term ends, he said, chamber members are due to elect both a chairman and deputy chairman.
Abdi Abshir Dhowre, the chamber’s director general, also challenged the decision as he read a statement to journalists.
“The statement issued by the Cabinet today, appointing an interim chairman, violates all the laws governing the Chamber of Commerce,” Dhowre said. “The administration and the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce are elected independently by the business community. According to the laws, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce cannot be appointed.”
Officials said the chamber’s General Assembly has 65 members and its board of directors has 25 members.
Under the chamber’s rules, they said, the General Assembly elects the chairman through a secret ballot for a five-year term.
The most recent recognized election took place on March 9, 2017.
