# Kaah Express and KIMS: the money transfer firm and its microfinance arm

> Kaah Express and Kaah International Microfinance Services in facts: licences, the 2014 launch, branches, clients, awards, goals, and the separate Kaah Electric company.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/businesses/kaah-express-and-kims/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Kaah Express

Kaah Express is a Somali money transfer business. The Central Bank of Kenya licensed it on **22 October 2014**, at an address in the Kaah Building in Eastleigh, Nairobi ([Central Bank of Kenya, directory of licensed money remittance providers, 2016](https://www.centralbank.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Directory-of-Licenced-Money-Remittance-Providers.pdf)). The research site MicroCapital described it as a US-based international remittances company ([MicroCapital](https://www.microcapital.org/?p=22850)). A [Somaliland](/en/states/somaliland-1991-to-2026/) press report described Kaah Express as working on enterprise training for young people ([Somaliland Sun](https://somalilandsun.com/somaliland-kaah-express-to-facilitate-enterprise-development-solutions-for-youth)). See [Eastleigh](/en/economy/eastleigh-somali-business/).

## KIMS: the 2014 launch

In **June 2014** Kaah Express, the Qatar-based youth employment initiative **Silatech** and the **American Refugee Committee** launched **Kaah Islamic Microfinance Services (KIMS)**, presented as "Somalia's first commercial microfinance institution". The formal launch was held in Hargeisa on 11 June 2014, after pilots in Somaliland and [Puntland](/en/states/puntland/) earlier that year supported by the FAO-run SEED II programme and the African Enterprise Challenge Fund ([Zawya press release, 15 June 2014](https://www.zawya.com/en/press-release/silatech-partners-launch-somalias-first-commercial-microfinance-institution-ymsdg5g9)).

The partners' 2014 market study found that **less than 5 percent** of demand for microfinance in the Somali regions was being met, and estimated a potential market of **over two million** small business clients. KIMS planned to reach them through Kaah Express's branches and hundreds of agents, offering Islamic (sharia-compliant) loans and savings with business training, with a focus on low-income women and young people (same source).

## KIMS today

- **Licence:** KIMS, based in Hargeisa, is on the Central Bank of Somalia's register of licensed microfinance institutions ([Central Bank of Somalia, licensed microfinance institutions](https://centralbank.gov.so/licensed-microfinance-institutions/)).
- **Branches and reach:** the African Enterprise Challenge Fund says KIMS works through **13 branches** across Somaliland, Puntland and southern and central Somalia, and that its AECF-funded programme reached **79,960** people, aimed at women-headed households ([AECF, Kaah Islamic Microfinance Services](https://aecfafrica.org/stories/kaah-islamic-microfinance-services)).
- **Award:** in November 2017 KIMS won the **$100,000** Ethical Finance Innovation Challenge and Awards (EFICA), co-organised by Thomson Reuters and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. Its board chairman, Mustafa Ali, is based in Dubai ([Salaam Gateway](https://salaamgateway.com/story/for-small-businesses-in-somalia-this-firm-could-be-an-ethical-boon)).
- **Goals:** when it joined the UN-backed Business Call to Action in 2021, KIMS committed to reach **70,000 people, 35,000 of them women**, and to lend **$70 million by 2026**. It said rural clients made up 10 percent of its portfolio, half of them women and 80 percent young people ([Business Call to Action, KIMS](https://www.businesscalltoaction.org/member/kaah-international-microfinance-services)).

## Not the same as Kaah Electric

**Kaah Electric Power and Lighting Company** in Hargeisa, founded in 1997 as City Light Electric Company and renamed in 2006, is owned mainly by former generator companies and private shareholders ([Wikipedia, KAAH Electric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAAH_Electric)). The sources here do not describe a shared owner with Kaah Express.

## Sources disagree

- **Where Kaah Express is based.** MicroCapital calls it US-based; Kenya's register gives a Nairobi address; Zawya calls it a "leading Somali money transfer business" (sources above).
- **Name of KIMS.** The 2014 launch used "Kaah Islamic Microfinance Services"; later documents use "Kaah International Microfinance Services" (sources above).

See also [Islamic finance, microfinance and takaful](/en/economy/islamic-finance-microfinance-and-takaful/) and the [Somali businesses](/en/businesses/).

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