OP-ED: Why the Somali Diaspora Should Keep Faith in Somalia’s Future
Across continents, the Somali diaspora carries a lingering question: Is now the time to lean in or bow out? The answer, grounded in what is happening on the ground, is clear. This is a moment to keep faith in Somalia’s future—and to help shape it.
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The obstacles are formidable and measurable. Overall unemployment hovers around 20 percent, while youth unemployment exceeds 30 percent. Nearly 70 percent of Somalis live below the international poverty line. Illiteracy remains widespread, with roughly half of adults unable to read and write. Only about one-third of school-age children are enrolled in formal education. These are not abstractions; they are reminders of how much potential remains locked away.
And yet the country is not waiting for transformation to arrive solely through public institutions. Somalia’s private sector has stepped in to build systems that connect people, reduce friction and expand opportunity. In a landscape where state capacity has often been thin, companies have shouldered responsibilities that elsewhere would be public: payments, logistics, and even safety nets.
Telecommunications and finance sit at the center of this quiet restructuring. Hormuud Telecom, one of the country’s most influential companies, illustrates how a commercial backbone can double as a developmental engine. Through its mobile money platform, EVC Plus, millions of Somalis can transact in real time, save safely and navigate economic shocks. The company says it employs tens of thousands across technology, logistics, energy and services—evidence of how a single infrastructure provider can ripple across the economy.
Finance is evolving alongside connectivity. Salaam Somali Bank has expanded access to capital through Sharia-compliant products that reach micro- and small businesses traditionally left out. That financing has supported shops, farms, transport services and startups—the everyday enterprises that anchor local economies and create jobs. When credit is ethical, accessible and local, it multiplies impact.
Crucially, this private-sector push is not confined to profit. The Hormuud Salaam Foundation supports education, scholarships, healthcare and emergency response. These are not one-off acts of charity, but attempts to institutionalize ladders of social mobility—targeting unemployment, poverty and illiteracy by design.
The signs of recovery are increasingly visible. Business formation is rising. Confidence is returning. Real estate is booming in Mogadishu and regional capitals, fueled by a blend of domestic capital and diaspora investment. Exports, especially livestock, are rebounding; advocates say Somalia is on track to export more than $1 billion worth of livestock to GCC countries this year. A decade ago, many of these markers would have sounded aspirational. Today they are observable trends.
There is a deeper truth beneath these developments. Somalia has been forced to live out a hard Stoic principle: that impediments can become the path forward. Scarcity has pushed innovation. Fragmentation has demanded cooperation. Where institutions were absent, systems have been built anew—fintech rails for payments, mobile-first communication networks, community-driven education and healthcare.
For the diaspora, this is not a call to romanticize hardship. It is an invitation to identify where momentum already exists and add weight to it. Investment does not need to be monumental to be meaningful. Partnership can be phased, targeted and realistic. The most powerful contributions often combine capital with know-how, accountability and time.
Practical steps are within reach for individuals, families and business networks. Consider how targeted involvement can convert belief into outcomes that matter in daily life.
- Visit and verify. Spend time on the ground to see where demand is real—whether in logistics, agribusiness, retail, education or health services—and to build trust with partners.
- Co-invest with established operators. Leverage platforms such as Hormuud Telecom’s EVC Plus and banks like Salaam Somali Bank to transact securely and scale prudently.
- Back social foundations. Support scholarships, clinics and emergency-response programs that translate directly into employability and resilience.
- Mentor and transfer skills. Pair capital with technical training in accounting, digital marketing, coding, supply-chain management and customer service.
- Build for durability. Focus on ventures that create steady jobs and services—repair shops, cold-chain storage, wholesale distribution, payment facilitation—across regions, not just in city centers.
- Advocate for standards. Encourage transparency, compliance and inclusive hiring that brings women and youth into formal work.
None of this ignores risk. Due diligence matters. Diversification matters. Community leadership matters. But waiting for perfect conditions is another way of saying “not yet”—and “not yet” becomes “never” for too many places and people. The difference between fragile progress and durable recovery often comes down to whether those with resources decide to engage despite the imperfections.
There is also a moral logic here. The numbers that define Somalia’s challenges—unemployment, poverty, illiteracy—are also a ledger of possibility. Reducing youth unemployment by even a few points reshapes family fortunes. Expanding school enrollment by a few percentage points builds a generation. Training a cohort of small-business owners can reset local markets. Scaled across districts and regions, the gains become structural.
For years, Somalia’s story was framed as a test of survival. Increasingly, it is a story of direction and design—of systems built where there were none, of markets taking root and of social purpose embedded in commerce. Telecommunications and Sharia-compliant finance are no panacea, but they are essential scaffolding for a more resilient, inclusive economy. The question is whether the diaspora will help strengthen that scaffolding until it can bear more weight.
Keeping faith does not require ignoring reality. It requires reading it correctly. The reality is that Somalia’s trajectory is no longer defined only by what went wrong, but by what is being built to make things right. Diaspora capital, expertise and networks can accelerate that shift from subsistence to stability, and from stability to growth.
So do not quit on Somalia—not now, not ever. Visit. Build. Partner. Support. Teach. The work is cumulative, and the future is being assembled in plain sight by people who believe there is something worth building. The diaspora’s belief—and its participation—can turn promising movement into lasting change.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
