Research Report:

Always Moving, Always Sharing

Mobile Money Practices in Somaliland

“Without Zaad, our lives would go backwards.”

- Farmer, Gebiley

 

Published while working with Studio D Radiodurans.

Team: Ahmed Ali, Muse Awale, Pascal Wicht, Jan Chipchase 

DOWNLOAD:

Full Report  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lack of international investment has enabled Somaliland to nurture, from the ground up, a locally unique and broadly successful mobile-money ecosystem. Spurred by zero commissions and a distinct lack of convenient alternatives, Telesom’s Zaad and Somtel’s e-Dahab are enabling new mobile money practices and behaviours that will reverberate well beyond its borders. 

The following report, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, puts the adoption of mobile money into a social, economic and cultural perspective. Reading this report you’ll better understand:

  • The rapid rate of adoption

  • The disparity between formal growth rate and what is happening on the ground

  • What it will take to have broad impact on financial inclusion

  • The challenges ahead

Note: This report was commissioned, and research completed, in mid-2015. Recent changes in the financial landscape are therefore not reflected in our findings.