Somali Bankers: Most Shilling Printed After 1991 Collapse, no Central Issuer

Somalia 15 April 2026, — Most Somali shilling notes still in circulation were printed after Somalia’s central government collapsed in 1991, and no single authority regulates their issuance today, the Somali Bankers Association said, warning the vacuum is eroding trust and pushing reliance on US dollars.

“There has been no unified government authority managing currency issuance” since the state collapse, SBA Chair Ahmed Khadar Abdi Jama said.

As a result, he added, multiple uncontrolled sources of shilling have entered the market.

The move, he added, had undermined confidence in the national currency and boosts dollar use and mobile money. It has also threatened Somalia’s decades-old exchange system of converting shillings to dollars, putting thousands of currency exchange workers at risk.