Somali businesses in the UK: money transfer firms, shops and the 2013 banking crisis

The short version

Many of the companies that send money from Somalis abroad to Somalia are registered in the UK. A September 2013 study written for the UK government by Beechwood International counted an estimated 17 companies serving the UK–Somalia corridor. Five held full payment-institution status and the other 12 were small payment institutions (Beechwood, Safer Corridors Rapid Assessment, 2013, p. 35). The firms have a trade body, the Somali Money Services Association (SOMSA) (same source).

Companies on the UK register

The UK Companies House register lists these companies (searched 12 November 2026):

Source for every row: Companies House search; each company's record is found by searching its name on that service. The register also shows that Kaah Express (UK), later renamed KaahPay Global Ltd (05483627), was dissolved on 19 December 2023 (Companies House). Dahabshiil Group Holdings, based in the Dubai International Financial Centre, was entered on the UK register of overseas entities on 5 December 2022 (Companies House, OE006358).

For the firms themselves, see Dahabshiil, WorldRemit, the Amal group and Kaah Express and KIMS.

How much money goes through the UK

• The UK financial regulator's figures showed $39.8 million of reported transfers to Somalia in 2012. The 2013 study says this understates the real total, because most firms did not have to report their volumes (Beechwood 2013, p. 22).
• Firms that shared their own transaction records with the study suggested a regulated flow of about $380 million a year, including money sent by aid agencies and companies (same source, p. 22).
• The study put the average cost of sending money from the UK to Somalia at 5.14 percent, close to the 5 percent goal that G8 leaders set in 2009, and well below the 12.4 percent average for Africa (same source, p. 18).
• Among aid agencies surveyed for the study, 88 percent used Somali transfer companies. Of those, 69 percent used Dahabshiil, 15 percent Kaah, and 8 percent each used Olympic, Amal and Juba Express (same source, p. 55).

The 2013 bank account closures

In 2013 Barclays gave notice that it would close the accounts of most money transfer firms, including the last four specialised Somali firms that still had accounts at a UK bank (Beechwood 2013, p. 16). WorldRemit was the only firm in the corridor that did not receive a notice. At the time it sent money only to Somaliland (same source, p. 36). In April 2013 the Financial Conduct Authority publicly censured Horn Express Ltd, formerly Qaran Express Money Transfer, for mixing customers' money with its own between 2009 and 2011 (same source, p. 38). For the court case and the campaign that followed, see Dahabshiil and Remittances in numbers.

Shops and small firms

• In the 2021 census, 8.5 percent of Somalis aged 16 to 64 in England and Wales were self-employed and 34.1 percent were employees (ONS, Somali populations, England and Wales: Census 2021).
• A study of Somali businesses in Leicester interviewed 25 owners and 25 workers and held three focus groups. It found that family and community ties alone do not explain how these businesses start and grow (Ram, Theodorakopoulos and Jones, Work, Employment and Society 22(3), 2008).
• A follow-up study by the same team found that the economic and political setting "imposes harsh constraints upon Somali business activity", and that trading across borders is likely limited to a small minority (Jones, Ram and Theodorakopoulos, IJURR 34(3), 2010).

For Somali life in UK cities, see London (Somali diaspora) and Other UK cities.