Editorial – Between Compassion and Reality: A Critical Reading of Farmaajo’s Speech

The address delivered by former Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo to a group of MPs in Mogadishu has sparked wide public attention after he warned of a “serious economic downturn” and called for salary increases and lower taxes on essential goods. While his remarks genuinely resonated with the economic hardship facing ordinary citizens, the prescriptions he offered sounded more like political sympathy than a realistic economic plan.

A Fragile Economy and a Society Under Pressure

Somalia’s economy suffers from deep structural fragility. The state relies almost entirely on customs revenue, remittances, and external assistance. With currency instability and rising import costs, household purchasing power continues to erode. Farmaajo’s message aligned well with public sentiment, yet it overlooked the strict fiscal constraints governing how the state functions.

The Revenue–Expenditure Paradox

The core contradiction in Farmaajo’s proposals lies in the fact that more than 90% of government revenue comes from taxes on imported goods. Despite this, the former president simultaneously called for reducing these taxes while increasing public-sector salaries — a formula impossible to balance without identifying new revenue sources or undertaking major structural reforms.

Reducing the state’s main income stream while increasing public spending is not economic reform — it is a recipe for a deeper fiscal crisis.