The SOMALIA MSMEs Ecosystem
Abstract
This report provides a description of the challenges and opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Somalia. We find that MSMEs and the startup ecosystem are influenced not only by exogenous factors, but also by endogenous factors, and their development depends on the political, security as well as the capacity of entrepreneurs to create, develop and maintain the business. This study also presents the important role that macroenvironment enablers and market actors play in the development of MSMEs and the startup ecosystem. In Somalia, local actors and communities must come together to unite their efforts in order to create a new generation of entrepreneurs through encouragement, training, mentoring, inspiration and support for financial inclusion.
Acknowledgments
THE research is funded by SPARK and the Dutch MFA.
We thank the Bina program under the general leadership of Mustafa Elsagezli, acting as the director of the Bina program who provided information and expertise that greatly assisted the research.
The preparation of the report was led and supervised by Mohamed Alif Kahlani, entrepreneurship expert with a core team consisting of Tareq Abdalrazeq a researcher who provided inputs, editing and layout, Iyas Sabri, entrepreneurship expert who provided valuable advice and Feyza Nur Samli who provided research assistance.
We thank Mohamed Yacine Elmaaddyt as the BINA Incubator Manager, the main focal person of the project. Omer Safi and Ahmed Skaik for administrative assistance and Zeid Adle who was BINA’s assistant on the ground in Somalia.
We would also like to show our gratitude to practitioners, experts, official and entrepreneurs for their participation in the working groups and for sharing their knowledge and expertise during this research. A full list of interviewees for this report is available in the Methodology section.
We are also extremely grateful for the support and encouragement from the Zamzam partner who engaged with the team during the production of this document.
We thank Mr. Abdullahi Yusuf Mohamed, for interviewing an official from Ministry of Commerce and Industry on behalf of us.
Special thanks to Jennifer Rowland, international development practitioner for proofreading this report.
The cover of the report is based on a general design by Farouk Almoudarres.
