In much of the developing world, financial inclusion is framed as a problem of access, how to bring the unbanked into the system. Somaliland has already solved that problem. What it has not solved until now is integration. Over the past decade, widespread adoption of mobile money has enabled financial access at scale, (GSMA, 2023), even in the absence of deep banking penetration.

For over a decade, Somaliland has built one of Africa’s most dynamic mobile money ecosystems. Platforms such as Telesom’s ZAAD and Somtel’s eDahab have enabled a largely cashless urban economy, allowing millions to transact digitally in a country where traditional banking penetration remains limited. According to the GSMA, mobile money services in fragile and low-income contexts often substitute for formal banking systems rather than complement them (GSMA, 2022).

Yet underlying this success lies a structural weakness: fragmentation. Mobile wallets, banks, remittance providers, and government systems have evolved in parallel, but not together. As the World Bank has noted, fragmented financial ecosystems reduce efficiency, limit innovation, and constrain financial deepening in emerging markets (World Bank, 2021).

That reality is now beginning to change. 

A Quiet but Strategic Shift

This week, the Bank of Somaliland launched a National Payment System (NPS), (Bank of Somaliland, 2026), a move that may prove to be one of the most consequential financial reforms in the country’s recent history. Supported by the Mojaloop Foundation, the system is designed to enable interoperability across financial service providers, including mobile money platforms and banks.

At first glance, this may appear to be a technical upgrade. In reality, it represents a structural transformation. National payment switches have been shown to significantly enhance financial system efficiency and inclusion by enabling real-time, low-cost transactions across........

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