Women in Somalia's economy

The short version

The government's household survey found that women own more household businesses than men and take more of the decisions about how the money is used. The same survey found women less likely than men to have a job, to have finished school or to hold a bank account (SNBS, SIHBS 2022). Many women save and borrow through savings groups they run themselves (Al Jazeera, 8 April 2022).

Who owns household businesses

From the Somali National Bureau of Statistics, Integrated Household Budget Survey (SIHBS) 2022, chapter 8:

• Only 15.8 percent of households ran a business of their own in the past 12 months.
• Of businesses with one owner, 56.7 percent are owned by women and 35.4 percent by men. Another 7.9 percent are owned jointly by a woman and a man.
• Women own more in towns and in farming areas. Among nomadic households ownership is almost equal: 44.2 percent women, 44.1 percent men.
• Women decide how business earnings are used in 54.9 percent of cases, against 32.1 percent for men. They manage the business in 56.6 percent of cases.
• The most common household businesses are trading on a street or in a market (37.2 percent) and small shops and workshops (23.4 percent).

Work and jobs

From the same survey (SIHBS 2022, chapter 7), for people aged 15 and over:

Women are more likely than men to work in basic, low-skill jobs (16.0 percent of employed women). For where jobs are posted, see Where jobs in Somalia are advertised.

School and bank accounts

• 69.9 percent of women and girls aged 6 and over have had no formal schooling, against 60.6 percent of men and boys. In nomadic areas the figure for women is 93.5 percent (SIHBS 2022).
• Only 3.1 percent of women have finished secondary school and 2.7 percent have higher education (SIHBS 2022).
• Only 8.8 percent of all adults own a bank account: 10.3 percent in towns, 2.0 percent among nomads. Ownership rises to 27.6 percent for people with higher education (SIHBS 2022). Most people pay by phone instead; see Mobile money in Somalia.

Savings groups: ayuuto and hagbad

Ayuuto, also called hagbad, is "an interest-free rotating savings scheme based on mutual trust" (Al Jazeera, 8 April 2022). Members pay a fixed sum into a pot at each meeting and one member takes the whole pot in turn. In one Mogadishu group described by Al Jazeera, 10 women each paid $10 a month. Members also borrow from the pot in a crisis, and women use the payouts to buy food or start small businesses such as selling milk or firewood.

The groups have no written contract or legal protection, so money can be lost if the keeper disappears or dies (Al Jazeera). Aid groups have built on them. In Mudug, 22 women in Docol each saved $1 a week and, with a cash grant, opened a clothing and shoe shop (International Rescue Committee, 2026). The same practice is widespread in the diaspora (Al Jazeera).

Cash payments go to women

Under Baxnaano, the government's cash safety net, women were 100 percent of direct recipients of the regular payments (World Bank, 2022). The follow-on BOOST-You project, approved in October 2025, aims to create 28,000 jobs for young people by 2029, 16,800 of them for women (World Bank, 28 October 2025). See Baxnaano, the cash safety net.

Women in decision-making

Somalia has a 30 percent quota for women's seats, and the national plan to 2029 commits to "ensuring the 30% women's quota" (Ministry of Planning, NTP Executive Summary). See The National Transformation Plan.

Sources disagree

Figures for women's share of seats in Parliament differ:

• UN Women says the share "dropped from 24 to 20%" in the 2022 elections (UN Women Somalia).
• The Ministry of Planning gives 12.33 percent and aims to raise it to 30 percent (NTP Executive Summary).

Where the numbers come from

Almost all figures here come from SIHBS 2022, a national household survey by the Somali National Bureau of Statistics.