Where Is Somaliland’s Telecom Tax Money?

Somaliland’s new 2.5% sales tax exposes a troubling contradiction. Rather than aggressively collecting from the country’s largest, most profitable corporations, the government has chosen to raise revenue from ordinary citizens already squeezed by inflation, soaring electricity prices, and recurring droughts. For families on tight budgets, even a modest sales tax means less money for food, water, and medicine.

Instead of leaning harder on consumers at the register, the Ministry of Finance should focus on collecting what large corporations already owe — particularly in telecommunications and financial services. Why should struggling families shoulder more of the tax burden while some of Somaliland’s most powerful companies operate with limited public transparency about their financial contributions?

Critics argue that private corporations here have accumulated enough economic influence to shape government decisions, weaken public institutions, and blur the line between corporate and state interests — even as the country seeks diplomatic recognition and courts foreign investment. At the center of these concerns are Dahabshiil and Telesom, which is owned by Hormmug Telecom of Somalia, two of Somaliland’s most prominent business groups. Their commercial success is undeniable. But critics, opposition figures, and civil society activists argue that their financial power has increasingly translated into political influence: campaign financing, privileged access to decision-makers, and close relationships with successive administrations, including that of President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi “Cirro.”

How Much Did Somaliland Actually Collect from Telesom and Somtel in 2025?

Telesom, Somaliland’s largest mobile operator, and Somtel — which entered the market through the Dahabshiil Group in 2009 — are privately held and disclose little public financial information. Yet both operate using a public resource: radio-frequency spectrum. Citizens have a legitimate interest in knowing whether these companies are paying their fair share.

The government should disclose, separately for each operator, how much has been paid since operations began in:

• Corporate income tax
• GST
• Telecommunications-related taxes
• Licence fees
• Spectrum fees
• Numbering fees
• Other regulatory payments
• Total payments to government

Not how much they earned. Not their customer count. Not their market share. How much money actually reached the Somaliland treasury.

There is no readily accessible public statement providing this information, operator by operator, for 2025. If the money has been collected, why can’t the government show the public exactly how much? That isn’t an unreasonable demand — it’s basic fiscal transparency.

What Transparency Can Look Like

Somaliland doesn’t need to copy another country’s tax system, but it can learn from how others report. In Kenya, Safaricom reported roughly $3 billion in revenue in 2025 and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in tax, earning repeated recognition as one of the country’s major taxpayers. In Malawi, Airtel reported about  $208 million in revenue, $18.3. Million in income tax, and a further $13.2 million  in licence and spectrum charges, against roughly 8.78 million active customers. The total revenue is $208.28 million.

Somaliland’s economy is far smaller, but the principle holds: profitable telecom operators can and should make transparent, substantial contributions to the public treasury. Every dollar lost to weak enforcement is a dollar unavailable for education, infrastructure, and public safety — police officers without adequate equipment, firefighters without proper protective gear.

Please note For 2012–2015, the Ministry of Finance data give us a particularly useful comparison:

• Telesom: $1.498 million
• Somtel: $336,085
• Combined: $1.834 million

So Telesom paid approximately 4.46 times as much as Somtel during those four years.

Telecommunications, Financial Power, and Transparency

Hormuud is not merely a telecom operator; its ecosystem spans mobile money, financial services, remittances, energy, construction, agriculture, and real estate. There have also been unverified reports of agricultural activity, including honey production, in areas controlled by al-Shabaab, with exports to Gulf markets — claims that warrant independent investigation, not repetition as fact.

Dahabshiil’s footprint is similarly broad, with reported interests in banking, remittances, payment systems, internet services, real estate, fishing, hotels, and energy. The wider these groups’ economic reach, the more important transparency becomes around taxation, licensing, and the use of public resources like spectrum, which belongs to the people, not to private corporations.

Why Hasn’t the Government Collected Adequate Taxes?

With the exception of the Egal administration, successive governments have been accused by critics of maintaining overly close relationships with powerful business interests, allowing weak oversight to translate into disproportionate corporate influence over public institutions. There are also allegations that business interests have shaped parts of Somaliland’s YouTube-based media environment, dampening scrutiny of corporate tax practices — and separate, serious allegations that financial institutions tied to major business groups have facilitated the movement of misappropriated public funds to Djibouti and Dubai.

President Irro right after he won the highly contested  2024 presidential election, he stayed at the residence of the CEO of Hormmud(Telssom), Abdirahman Mohamed. This is another example how the Telecommunications companies control our government

These claims  warrant independent investigation, not political speculation. What is beyond dispute is that Somaliland needs a government capable of collecting taxes, enforcing the law, and regulating powerful businesses in the public interest.

Auction the Spectrum, Fund Public Safety

Somaliland should consider competitive, transparent auctions for cellular spectrum, directing the resulting revenue toward essential services — including a national emergency management agency. Properly enforced taxes, licensing fees, and spectrum revenue could meaningfully modernize police and fire services that currently operate without adequate equipment. This is a matter of public safety, not politics.

The question isn’t why telecom companies can’t contribute more — it’s why the government hasn’t built a transparent system ensuring every profitable company pays what it legally owes. At minimum, Somaliland should seriously consider a proper corporate income-tax framework for profitable telecom operators.

The country cannot keep financing itself primarily on the backs of produce and milk vendors, small retailers, and property owners while its most profitable businesses remain shielded from scrutiny.

Crack Down on Corruption and Bribery

Somaliland must strengthen its fight against corruption, bribery, tax evasion, and conflicts of interest — in government and business alike. Islam prohibits both giving and accepting bribes, and allegations of dishonesty and opacity continue to raise serious concerns about the country’s political and business environment.

The answer isn’t to attack private enterprise — Somaliland needs investment, jobs, and successful businesses. But those businesses must operate under the law, just as ordinary citizens do. A legitimate tax system cannot demand more from the poor while leaving powerful economic actors shrouded in secrecy.So: where is Somaliland’s telecom tax money? 

Show us the money and the  numbers.

Ali-Guban Mohamed is the founder and editor of Gubanmedia.com, a site dedicated to news, analysis, and commentary on the Horn of Africa Region