In Mogadishu's Bakara market, exchange trader Muse Omar Jama, 49, sits in a quiet office surrounded by safes filled with millions of Somali shillings that have suddenly become worthless. 'It's like we went bankrupt overnight,' he says, reflecting the shock felt across the country after businesses, shops, and bus drivers began refusing the tattered banknotes last month.
The rejection of the Somali shilling has pushed up prices of essentials such as groceries, medicines, and public transport. A small bag of powdered milk more than doubled in price. The move has hit the poorest hardest, as the economy becomes increasingly dollarised, driven by remittances from the diaspora and the presence of international organisations.
Somalia has not printed banknotes since 1991, when the government of Siad Barre was overthrown. The 1,000 shilling note became the only official currency, but the US dollar and mobile money transfers have grown dominant. Before the revolt, Jama exchanged shillings for dollars via mobile money; now he walks three miles to work because buses no longer accept shillings.
Asha Ali Ahmed, 39, a vegetable seller in Mogadishu, says farmers now refuse shillings and demand mobile money payments, increasing vegetable prices. 'We were raised off the earnings from this vegetable stand,' she says. On 4 May, dozens of exchange traders protested, waving wads of old notes and shouting, 'Somalia is the only country without a currency.' Jama did not join, saying, 'Our currency is dead and so is our way of life.'
