MAPPING ICTS IN SOMALIA: POLICIES, PLAYERS, AND PRACTICES
Introduction
This report offers a review of the policies and players that
impact media and Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) policies and practices in Somalia.
The research, supplemented with interviews with senior
policy advisors on ICTs, civil society organizations,
journalists’ unions, and the private sector,1 suggests that
the Somali Federal Government faces significant hurdles in
constructing a national media policy. These can be reduced
to the following four key challenges:
1) A weak central government;
2) A geographically and politically fragmented media
environment;
3) A strong private telecommunications sector that benefits
from a lack of regulation;
4) A preference by many actors for the traditional xeer
and sharia law systems, rather than a formalized ICT
regulatory environment.
Background: ICT in Somalia
Somalia has not had an effective central government since
the breakout of a civil war in 1991. Virtually all government
institutions were destroyed during the conflict. Yet in the last
15 years, the private sector has revolutionized the country’s
ICT sector. While access to ICTs is still more prevalent in
urban centers than in rural areas, access is among the most
affordable on the African continent. The growth of the ICT
sector in Somalia is demonstrated by the rising number
of fixed and mobile telephone services, increasing use of
desktop, laptop, and tablet computers, and the surge in
the number, speed, and reach of internet service providers
(ISPs).
As with other countries in Africa, ICT is growing
exponentially, but in Somalia it is growing in a market
largely free from regulation. Most ICT companies
operating in Somalia are Somali-owned and operated.
Revenue generated by the telecommunications sector
alone outstrips all other revenue-generating sources, both
1 A total of 34 interviews were conducted. Most interviewees spoke on
condition of anonymity, which is typical in Somalia where many fear
some type of retaliation if their names appear in reports. Names of
interviewees are therefore not included in this report.
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public and private. Abdikadir Jahweyn, former Minister of
Information, Communication, and Postal Service, estimates
that telecommunication companies in Somalia earn
approximately USD 1 billion in profit annually, yet are not
subject to state oversight or taxes (personal communication,
March 2013).
The ICT infrastructure in Somalia caters primarily to urban
populations. In addition, ICT growth is uneven across the
three main regions: the self-declared ‘Republic of Somaliland’
in the northwest; the autonomous region of Puntland in the
northeast; and South-Central, which includes the capital
Mogadishu. The two dominant companies, Hormuud and
NationLink, are based in Mogadishu where much of the
growth is concentrated.
Data in the table below show the trends in terms of selected
ICT parameter usage in 2012.
Table 1. State of ICT penetration in Somalia
as of 2012 (A. Jahweyn, personal communication, March 2013)
Fixed telecom operators
6
Fixed lines in service
250,000
Mobile phone network operators
8
Mobile phone subscriptions
1,500,000
Internet service providers (ISPs)
28
Internet subscribers
80,000
Broadband subscribers
13,000
International internet bandwidth
160 Megabytes
Cyber cafes
2,500
Fixed line cost per minute
US$0.5
VoIP cost per minute
US$0.015
Cost per month of internet access
US$20
Cost per hour of cyber-café access
US$0.5-1
Number of computers
500,000