Somaliland offers investors chance to make history
A farmer offloading goats at the morning livestock market to prospective customers; a teenager buying an ice-cold Diet Coke from a rural roadside stall; an entrepreneur paying for an espresso at a buzzing, urban start-up hub. All three have at least two things in common. They all opt to make cashless, digital payments for daily purchases with their mobile phones; and they are all in Somaliland, a little-known, former British protectorate with a fast developing economy, situated on the tip of the Horn of Africa.Somaliland’s story is unfamiliar to many in the global investment community. We are often confused with our war-torn neighbour to the south, Somalia, from whom we separated and asserted our independence 26 years ago, in 1991, following years of violence orchestrated from Mogadishu by the repressive Siad Barre regime.
By contrast, Somaliland is highly stable and democratic. We have our own fully functioning government with a presidential system; regular, free and fair elections; our own currency, the Somaliland shilling; our own, independent judicial system; and a constitution that guarantees the rule of law.
Somaliland has a dynamic and youthful population; 70 per cent of the people are under 30 years old and well educated: there are more than 30 colleges and universities, public and private, which produce thousands of highly employable graduates every year.
