Report: Always Moving, Always Sharing

An exploration of mobile money practices in Somaliland.

SUMMARY

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.