Hormuud Telecom: Somalia's largest phone and mobile money company

How it began

Hormuud Telecom was founded on 2 April 2002 in Mogadishu by a group of Somali shareholders, starting with 16 network sites (Wikipedia, Hormuud Telecom). It grew during the years when Somalia had no working national government, building its network without a state regulator (University of Oxford research).

It is privately owned by many Somali shareholders. Sources give very different counts, from about 18,000 to more than 189,000 investors (Wikipedia).

Size

• Mobile money: Hormuud's EVC Plus is reported to handle about 155 million transactions worth about $2.7 billion a month, and to pay aid for more than 145 aid groups (TechCabal, June 2026).
• Jobs: more than 20,000 full- and part-time staff in 2021, about 45 percent of them engineers, which would make it the largest private employer in the country (Wikipedia).
• Market share: estimates range from about 39 percent (Omdia, late 2023) to 45 to 47 percent (Connecting Africa; TS2).

Services

• EVC Plus mobile money, used through simple phone codes on any phone. Its first transfers date from 2011 or 2012, depending on the source (Wikipedia).
• WAAFI, a smartphone app for payments and international transfers, launched in 2021 (same source).
• Mobile, fixed-line and home and business internet.
• Phones on credit: Hormuud planned to finance 100,000 smartphones for low-income users by the end of 2026, with a $19 deposit and no credit history needed (TechCabal).

Network

• 4G covers more than 70 percent of the population (TechCabal).
• 5G launched in 2024 in Mogadishu, Kismayo, Galkayo, Baidoa, Dhusamareeb, Beledweyne, Afgoye, Merca, Dhobley and other towns (Connecting Africa).
• Undersea cables: Hormuud owns the Somali segments of the PEACE cable, 40 percent of the Somali landing of DARE1, and a share of G2A (National Communications Authority).

Licences

• In February 2021 the Central Bank gave EVC Plus Somalia's first mobile money licence (VOA).
• Hormuud holds spectrum licence NCA-MFSL-003/2023 and is listed as compliant by the National Communications Authority (NCA, licence register).
• The GSMA re-certified EVC Plus for secure mobile money in August 2025 (Garowe Online).

The foundation

The Hormuud Salaam Foundation, set up in 2009 with Salaam Somali Bank, gave more than $5 million to COVID-19 response in 2020, built Somalia's first public oxygen plant in 2021, and gave $1 million for flood relief in 2023 (Wikipedia).

Why it matters

A company built by Somali shareholders after 1991 now carries much of the country's daily payments and data. See Mobile money in Somalia and Telecoms and internet.