THE WORLD IS ON THE EDGE- for the last couple of months the world has been in tough economic turmoil. The commodity prices have increased sharply. There is growing concern over hyperinflation could the world; the food crisis and energy crisis are at their peak with the slowing down of oil & gas production by OPEC countries and Russia. The effect of the Russian and Ukraine war is massive and beyond eastern Europe. Most of the advanced economies announced austerity plans to tackle this crisis from their citizens, but the least-developed economies are at the brink of food insecurity and soaring inflation rates. Somalia is not an exception to this crisis, the economy is deeply affected by these global economic waves. Nearly half of Somalis are at risk of starvation and famine since the country is heavily dependent on food imports and limited harvest action of crops. Our writer, Mowliid Ahmed, sheds the light on how this crisis engulfed the consumption of households and the reality on the ground that there was no intervention from the government in dealing with this crisis.
As Somalia prides itself an entrepreneurial nation, the creation of MSMEs is facing multifacet challenges. Almost all social services are run by private companies, and the role of the private sector in shaping and reviving the country’s economy is magnitude. The Majority of Somali business are MSMEs which creates the majority of job opportunities and contribute to the GDP. Still, they are facing critical challenges in scaling their business due to limited access to finance. Additionally, emerging startups and MSMEs are struggling to enter the market, not because of monopolistic market competition but because leaving the capital to start is almost unattainable. Our writer, Mohamed Muse proposes an excellent framework to address this issue and create an available pool of funding for MSMEs to lift the bundle of fear of risk from the Banks.
Also, In this issue, we emphasised the ambitious bid of Somalia’s accession to the East Africa Community for an integrated peaceful, and prosperous region. Somali has been keen on joining the block for more than a decade, but this latest bid by H.E Presiden Hassan Sheikh seems to attract appeal from both home and EAC members of states. I co-authored a piece with our writer, Mohamed Abshir, about what it takes in Somalia to join the block and clearly stressed what is in for the country. In this piece, we elaborated on the major critical aspect of this integration and how it will accelerate Somalia’s recovery process to a modern and functioning state in the region.
Somalia attracted two foreign banks for the first time in decades while the local banking industry has been thriving and booming for the last several years. The competition in the sector is growing among the budding giants by striddle to expand their total addressable market; they are employing all available facts at hand. Our writer, Zainab Mohamud pens down the consequence of the new bank’s entry in the market, Ziraat and Misr of Turkey and Egypt. She explained the benefits and drawbacks of this development to inform our readers.
Lastly, In this issue, we published many more interesting timely pieces that will inform, inspire enrich you to become better decision-makers. I hope you will enjoy reading our publications. Happy Reading!
Mohamed Okash, Editor-In-Chief
