The Somali shilling and the dollar

The currency today

The Central Bank of Somalia has not issued domestic currency since 1991, and the economy is "largely dollarized" (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025). Big payments, rents, salaries and nearly all mobile money are in US dollars. Shilling notes are used for small change in markets and transport.

Most shilling notes now in use were printed outside any central bank after 1991. About 95 to 98 percent of notes in circulation are estimated to be counterfeit or unauthorised (TechCabal, June 2026).

The street exchange rate

The shilling lost 7.1 percent against the dollar in 2025, the biggest fall in a decade. The average rate went from 28,118 shillings per dollar in 2024 to 30,103 in 2025. By December 2025 it was 32,043 (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025).

Average shillings per US dollar (same source):

• 2020: 25,761
• 2021: 26,039
• 2022: 26,833
• 2023: 27,201
• 2024: 28,118
• 2025: 30,103

The Central Bank says the fall came from more demand for dollars, partly because paying in dollars by mobile money has become easier than paying in shillings (same source).

How the currency began

All dates from the Central Bank of Somalia, History:

• 1950: the somalo replaced the Italian lira in the south, issued by a currency office set up in Rome.
• 30 June 1960: the Somali National Bank was founded, one day before the union of the north and the south. It opened on 4 July 1960.
• 1961: a decree brought the north from the East African shilling onto the Somali shilling, uniting the money of the new republic.
• 15 October 1962: the first Somali shilling notes entered circulation.
• 1975: the bank was renamed the Central Bank of Somalia.
• 1980s: prices rose fast and the shilling fell. Programmes with the IMF and World Bank made little progress.
• 1990: a 1,000-shilling note was in circulation.
• January 1991: the Central Bank stopped working when the state collapsed.

The plan for new notes

Bringing back a real Somali shilling is a top goal of the Central Bank's 2025 to 2029 plan. The bank proposes a currency board: every new shilling would be backed by foreign reserves, and the bank would publish its balance sheet every week (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025).

• A full rollout is expected to cost more than $70 million for printing, branches and storage. No date has been set (Dawan Africa, July 2026).
• A new Central Bank bill passed its second reading in the House of the People on 10 October 2026. MPs questioned a proposed rate of 100 new shillings to 1 dollar and debated Islamic finance rules and the bank's independence. It is not yet law (Dawan Africa, October 2026).
• The IMF says currency reform "should proceed carefully once key prerequisites are in place" (IMF, 5 October 2026).
• The Central Bank is consulting all federal member states on how the exchange would work (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025).

The Somaliland shilling

Somaliland has printed its own shilling since 1994 (Wikipedia, Somaliland shilling). In August 2026 the authorities set an official rate of 11,000 (buying) and 11,100 (selling) Somaliland shillings per dollar, required money changers to pay $700 to register plus a $130 annual tax, and stopped unlicensed changers from exchanging through Zaad and eDahab (Radio Ergo, 25 August 2026). Zaad itself holds money in dollars (GSMA).

Why it matters to families

Without small notes, rural families and small traders struggle to make change. MPs raised this in the 2026 debate (Dawan Africa). A working shilling would also give the country its own monetary tools, which the Central Bank calls "monetary sovereignty" (Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025).

Data file

Monthly street exchange rates from January 2020 to December 2025 are in somali-shilling-per-us-dollar-2020-2025.csv. Source: Central Bank of Somalia, Annual Report 2025, Table 3.