Central Bank of Somalia has awarded the first mobile money license to a telecom company.
The Horn of Africa has finally joined the rest of Africa in integrating a mobile money payment system. The company that was awarded the mobile money license is known as Hormuud Telecom which is also the country’s largest telecom service provider that operates electronic voucher cards.
The CBS governor issued a statement and said:
“The Central Bank of Somalia issued today Mobile Money license to Hormuud Telecom under the provision of mobile money service within the Federal Republic of Somalia,”
“In formalizing our existing digital payments infrastructure, we are accelerating the integration of Somalia’s financial system into the global economy,” Mohamed added.
Currently the mobile money service has 3 million subscribers in Somalia.
Somalia has been trying to grow financially and also find a way of ensuring that there’s financial inclusion consumer protection and financial stability. The World Bank recorded transactions worth 2.7 billion US dollars in Somalia in 2018.
Analysts have observed that Somalia is slowly digitizing their economy and are more internet based as banks, money transfer, education, airline, media and some government services are currently internet based.