Somalia’s telecom networks have achieved national voice interconnection, but limited interoperability between mobile money platforms continues to constrain the country’s digital economy.
This is according to Abdifatah Hassan Keynaan, CEO of SomLink Telecom, speaking in an interview with ITWeb Africa.
The 2023 national interconnection agreement established the legal and technical basis for networks to communicate across operators, while the National Communications Authority said nationwide interconnection was subsequently implemented across six licensed operators.
However, Keynaan said challenges remain in how the market operates, with the biggest potential impact from greater interoperability expected in mobile money and banking.
He noted that money largely remains within individual operators’ wallets, limiting transactions across networks.
Greater interoperability between mobile money platforms and bank accounts could enable people and businesses to transact across networks, reduce costs for merchants and make e-commerce viable at a national scale.
“Operators that have built large, closed ecosystems covering voice, data and mobile money have little commercial incentive to open them up, and interconnection has been slow to move from signed agreements to working services,” Keynaan said.
The first barrier is commercial, with Keynaan highlighting the cost of interconnection between networks.
He said: “Domestic interconnection rates were set at levels that are often higher than international calling rates. When calling another local network costs more than calling abroad, customers have no reason to do it, and they move to data apps instead.”
The Somali telecom market is dominated by Hormuud Telecom — which operates the EVC Plus platform — and Somtel.
Keynaan added that the problem is compounded by dominant operators maintaining closed ecosystems spanning voice, data and mobile money.
“We understand the business logic, but it holds back the wider market. Interoperability has to be designed so that it makes commercial sense for every operator, including the largest,” he said.
Technical limitations present another obstacle.
According to Keynaan, Somalia has established a number-portability framework, but implementation and shared technical infrastructure remain challenges.
Interconnection standards also vary between networks, while integration between mobile money platforms remains limited, meaning money and services rarely move between ecosystems.
On the regulatory side, Keynaan said Somalia has established a regulatory framework for telecom interconnection.
However, he said further rules are needed around cost-based interconnection pricing and coordination between telecom and financial-services regulators.
He commented: “Without clear rules that apply to everyone, no operator wants to move first.”
However, state infrastructure has begun moving independently to force the issue addressing the interoperability gap.
The Central Bank of Somalia launched the Somalia Instant Payment System in January 2025, built on international ISO 20022 standards, to enable real-time transfers between banks, mobile wallets and other payment channels.
The implications extend beyond consumers and commercial services to humanitarian operations.
Keynaan noted that organisations distributing cash assistance could reach beneficiaries regardless of which network they use, while interoperable systems could make such programmes faster, cheaper and easier to audit.
He said Somalia’s challenges are not unique, pointing to Tanzania’s industry-led mobile money interoperability in 2014 and Ghana’s national interoperability system launched in 2018.
“Both show that once the rules and incentives are right, operators can compete on service while sharing the rails,” he said.
For Somalia, Keynaan called for cost-based interconnection pricing enforced by the regulator, clearer rules from the National Communications Authority and Central Bank of Somalia covering mobile money and banking interoperability, and shared technical standards.
He also argued for greater infrastructure sharing, including shared fibre and towers, alongside investment in local data centres to keep domestic traffic in-country.
Keyanaan said: “Moving from competing networks to an integrated ecosystem needs these changes, above all, commercially viable interconnection and mobile money that works across networks. None of it requires new technology. It requires commercial will, consistent regulation and operators willing to compete on service while sharing the rails.”
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