Practice area
Banking, finance and Islamic finance
Conventional and Shari’ah-compliant finance: facility agreements, Murabaha and Wakala structures, mobile money, payments and fintech.
How the firm works in this area
The firm structures finance that has to satisfy two bodies of law at once: Somali banking legislation and Islamic Shari’ah principles. It has reviewed and drafted Somali-law Murabaha, Wakala and joint-venture agreements for a housing-finance programme, and advises lenders on the common-terms agreements and regulatory framework that sit beneath a lending platform.
On the payments side, the firm advises international networks and technology companies on payment-systems regulation, anti-money-laundering compliance, electronic transactions and consumer protection as they connect to Somalia. Mobile money is central to how Somalis transact, and the firm works with the framework the Central Bank of Somalia applies to it.
Clients range from development finance institutions and microfinance providers to global payments networks and the banks that serve the market.
Confidentiality is structural, not cosmetic. Representative work in this area is described by anonymized descriptor only. The firm never implies a named client without consent.
What the firm handles
A working list of the matters clients instruct the firm on in this area.
Selected matters
A federal ministry, with a development institution
Working with a development institution, the firm drafted the subsidiary legislation that operationalises the Companies Act 2019, including minority-shareholder protections, electronic registration and the rules for converting between company forms. The drafting was supported by public and private validation workshops in Mogadishu and Hargeisa, so that the instruments reflected the positions of the ministries, the registry and the market participants who would have to work with them once they were in force.
A donor-funded implementing contractor
The firm registered a non-commercial branch office for a donor-funded contractor, secured the applicable tax exemptions for its non-commercial status, and overhauled the organisation’s employee handbook to bring it into full conformity with the Somali Labour Code. The engagement combined the corporate registration, the tax position and the employment framework into a single piece of work, so that the contractor could establish a compliant operational presence without handling each element separately.
An international gaming company
The firm represented the client in contested trademark opposition proceedings before the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, protecting its intellectual property against a conflicting local application. The work ran from the substantive arguments on the register through to the procedural conduct of the opposition, and secured protection for the client’s marks in the Somali market.
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Instruct the firm on a matter in Somalia
The firm acts directly for clients and as Somali counsel to more than 140 international and regional firms. Tell us about the matter and the right lawyer will respond.