Money sent home: remittances to Somalia

How much comes in

Total money sent into Somalia reached $6,786 million in 2025, up 5 percent from $6,434 million in 2024 (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025). The Central Bank splits it into four kinds:

• Money sent by individuals to families: $3,134 million, up 15 percent. This is about 46 percent of the total and about 24 percent of GDP.
• Business transfers: $2,454 million (36 percent).
• Aid agency (NGO) transfers: $936 million (14 percent).
• Other bank (SWIFT) transfers: $262 million (4 percent).

All four figures: Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025.

The Central Bank calls family remittances "the largest and most stable source of inflows" (same source). They are larger than all aid and larger than all exports.

How the money travels

Two channels carry almost all of it:

• Money transfer businesses (hawala companies) handled $3,077 million in 2025. Seven in ten dollars they carried were family remittances ($2,141 million).
• Commercial banks handled $3,709 million. Most of it was business money ($1,952 million). Banks carried $993 million of family remittances.

Source for both: Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025. In December 2025 the Central Bank licensed 14 money transfer businesses (same source). See Hawala and money transfer companies.

Who receives it

The 2022 national household survey found that 20.7 percent of households received money from someone living outside the household in the year before. About 22 percent of town and village households received it, against 10.8 percent of nomadic households (Somali National Bureau of Statistics, SIHBS 2022).

The same survey found the money arrives through hawala (55.4 percent) and mobile money (41.5 percent). Towns use hawala more (62 percent). Nomadic families mostly use mobile money (72.3 percent) (same source).

Typical family support is $50 to $200 a month (Hiiraan Online, July 2025).

What it pays for

Most remittance money pays for food, rent, school and health. The Central Bank says remittances "underpinned the spending base and cushioned the pull-back in donor support" in 2025 (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025). It also keeps dollars flowing in, which pays for imports.

What it costs

Sending money to Somalia cost about 6.6 percent of the amount on average in late 2024. The UN goal is 3 percent (Hiiraan Online, July 2025).

Since 1 January 2026 the United States charges a 1 percent tax on money sent abroad when it is paid in cash, money order or cashier's cheque. Transfers paid from a US bank account or US debit or credit card are not taxed (RSM US).

Times the channel was nearly closed

• 2001: after 11 September, the United States shut down Al-Barakaat, then the largest Somali transfer company, on suspicion of terrorist links, which the company denied (The East African).
• 2013: Barclays, the last big UK bank serving Somali transfer companies, said it would close the accounts of all but 19 of its 165 remittance clients. Dahabshiil won a court order delaying the closure, and diaspora campaigners, backed by Oxfam, got Barclays to postpone four times (Oxfam; COMPAS, University of Oxford).

Sources disagree

The World Bank has often given about $1.7 to $2 billion a year for remittances (African Business). The Central Bank's newer series gives $3.1 billion for individuals alone in 2025. The difference comes from what is counted and from better reporting by transfer companies.