Tawakal Express: money transfer company based in Garowe

The short version

Tawakal Express is one of the Somali money transfer companies, often called hawala firms, that carry money from Somalis abroad to their families at home. Its head office is in Garowe, the capital of Puntland (Tawakal Express, letter to customers, June 2019). The Central Bank of Somalia lists it among the money transfer businesses it licenses (Central Bank of Somalia, licensed money transfer). In Kenya it is licensed as Tawakal Money Transfer Limited, with an office on Standard Street in Nairobi, since 1 January 2015 (Central Bank of Kenya, licensed remittance providers, 30 September 2026).

History

In a 2014 press release the company, then called Tawakal Money Express, said it had served the Somali community since 2003 and had offices and agents in more than 50 countries (Tawakal Money Express, press release, 25 September 2014). The same release named Garad Nor as chief executive and announced plans for a Tawakal Global Bank, to be housed in new "Tawakal Plaza" buildings in Mogadishu, Garowe and Galdogob. The Mogadishu building was planned with seven floors, including a supermarket, a 46-room hotel and conference halls (same source).

A 2013 study for the UK government on payments between the UK and Somalia named Tawakal, with Bakaal, as one of the smaller firms serving some of the least secure parts of Puntland and south-central Somalia (Beechwood International, 2013, p. 27). In Minneapolis, the Minnesota Daily listed Tawakal in 2009 among the transfer firms used by Somali families in the Twin Cities (Minnesota Daily, 9 June 2009).

Services

In a June 2019 letter to customers, the company listed what it had done in the previous three years (Tawakal Express, June 2019):

• set up its head office in Garowe, with a compliance department there;
• started direct payments to Kenya's M-Pesa in 2016;
• launched a mobile money app, TPLUS, in 2017;
• grew its agent network by 40%, to more than 80 countries;
• won contracts to deliver aid money for UN agencies and other groups;
• opened SomBank in July 2019.

SomBank's website says Tawakal operates in more than 70 countries and that in the United States its sole authorised partner is Banana Pay LLC, which sends money from seventeen states (SomBank, remittance). In October 2026 Tawakal was a sponsor of the Global Somali Entrepreneurship Forum in Nairobi (Dawan Africa, 28 October 2026).

Related

• Somali money transfer companies: directory
• Somalia's newer banks, including SomBank
• Hawala and money transfer companies