Doing business in Somalia

Somalia is probably the most dangerous country on the planet right now. There has been a civil war going on for nearly two decades. For all practical purposes there is no government and no law. Obviously this is not a good place to do business and for the most part there are no opportunities for doing business in Somalia. That being said the Somali economy has been remarkably resilient given all the difficulties that the country has faced in recent years.

Somalia is one of the poorest countries in the world, surprisingly it isn't the poorest. Although the country is very poor there are several countries that are even worse off. Given the chaos that has existed in Somalia for the last two decades this is quite an accomplishment. The economy is a strange mix of small scale farming and some rather high tech industry like telecommunication. There is little export from Somalia although they are starting to export agricultural products, especially beef to the Gulf States. Most of the Somali economy is informal so it is hard to determine just how strong it is but it is fair to say that it is not good but also not as bad as you would expect.

As for doing business in Somalia that isn't really an option, for all practical purposes there is no government. The country is ruled by warlords and pirates. Security is going to be an issue as for the most part it isn't safe for foreigners to visit the country. Anything that you invest in Somalia will likely be stolen so there is little opportunity to set up a business in the country.

However just because you can't do business in Somalia doesn't mean that you can't do business with Somalia. There is a limited opportunity to trade with Somalia as they have started sell agricultural products overseas. In order to do this they are going to need an agent to trade with and that provides opportunity. Certainly there will still be risk involved because of the rampant piracy. It is however a way to get your foot in the door with Somalia so that in the event the unrest ever comes to an end you will be able to take advantage of the opportunity.

Should there ever be an end to the civil unrest in Somalia there will be a great deal of opportunity to become a successful business woman over there. Two decades of fighting have left the country with virtually no infrastructure all of that will need to be rebuilt. In all likelihood the rebuilding will be done by foreign aid agencies but they will of course need to employ private businesses to carry out the work. However with no end to the fighting in site it will likely be quite a long time before there are any opportunities for doing business in Somalia.