Somalia: technology regulation at a glance

Framework: No dedicated crypto legislation; Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) holds monetary authority under Provisional Constitution (2012) and Financial Institutions Law; Mobile Money Regulations (2023) are the only enacted digital-finance instrument

Somalia has no comprehensive legal framework governing cryptocurrency or digital assets. The Central Bank of Somalia has issued public warnings against virtual assets but has neither formally banned nor licensed crypto activities, leaving the sector in a legal gray zone. Practical market activity is outpacing legislation: Salaam Somali Bank launched a USDT exchange service in 2025, becoming the first CBS-regulated bank to offer stablecoin transactions, while no VASP licensing regime or tax guidance exists.

Framework: No AI-specific law, regulation, or published national AI strategy. Institutional activity sits with the Somali National AI Center (SNAIC) under the Ministry of Communications and Technology; the closest binding instrument is the data-adjacent Data Protection Act (Law No. 005 of 2023).

As of May 2026 Somalia has no comprehensive AI law, no AI-specific in-force regulation, and no formally adopted national AI strategy. Governance efforts are at an early, institutional stage: the Somali National AI Center (SNAIC) leads research and adoption under the Ministry of Communications and Technology, a UNESCO ethics-readiness assessment is at inception, and a 2023 Data Protection Act provides adjacent personal-data rules. There is no proposed AI legislation before parliament.

Framework: Data Protection Act, 2023 (Law No. 005 of 2023), enforced by the Somali Data Protection Authority (DPA)

Somalia has a comprehensive, GDPR-style personal-data protection regime. The Data Protection Act, 2023 was signed by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on 21 March 2023 and entered into force on 23 March 2023, establishing the Somali Data Protection Authority, which was officially inaugurated on 24 February 2024 and has since issued implementing regulations and guidance.

Framework: Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) Mobile Money Regulations 2020 (amended 2021), issued under the Financial Institutions Law; National Payment System (NPS) launched 2021 with an NPS Act adopted by the CBS Board as an interim measure (not yet enacted by Parliament).

Somalia has an in-force licensing regime for mobile money / e-money administered by the Central Bank of Somalia under its Mobile Money Regulations 2020 (amended 2021), and the first license was issued to Hormuud (EVCPlus) in 2021. However, the comprehensive National Payment System Act remains a CBS Board-adopted interim measure rather than enacted legislation, and there are no distinct frameworks for open banking, e-money/payment institutions beyond mobile money, or BNPL, so the regime is functional but incomplete.

Framework: Immigration and Citizenship Agency (ICA Somalia) under the Federal Government of Somalia; visas, work permits and residence permits administered via the ICA e-Visa portal. No remote-work/digital-nomad regime exists.

Somalia has no digital-nomad or remote-work visa and no residency-by-investment/golden-visa program. It operates a basic regime of visa-on-arrival (available to all nationalities), short-stay visitor/tourist, business and student visas, plus employer-sponsored work permits and associated residence permits. There is no defined freelance, self-employed or long-stay route that would let a remote worker working for a foreign employer obtain residency, and the work-permit system is not yet standardized nationwide.

Framework: No comprehensive online-safety/content-moderation statute. Online content is governed mainly through ad-hoc executive directives and ISP-level blocking ordered by the Ministry of Communications & Technology and enforced via the National Communications Authority (NCA), established under the Communications Act 2017. Adjacent laws (Data Protection Act 2023; Cybersecurity Law passed by Parliament Jan 2026) address privacy and critical-infrastructure security, not platform content liability or user-safety duties.

Somalia has no DSA/OSA-style online-safety or content-moderation law; the NCA regulates the telecom/internet sector technically, while online content is controlled through government bans and ISP blocking. The federal government has banned major platforms (TikTok, Telegram, 1XBet since Aug 2023), blocked ~12,000 websites/accounts (Dec 2024), and blocked news outlets and issued content directives (2025), and Al-Shabaab bans internet access in territory it controls, making the overall environment one of heavy state and non-state restriction rather than a structured safety regime. There are no formal age-verification or platform-liability rules for online safety.

Framework: National Cybersecurity Law (passed by the House of the People on 26 Jan 2026), administered by the National Communications Authority (NCA) and SOM-CIRT; complemented by the in-force Data Protection Act No. 005 of 2023 (breach-notification duties) overseen by the Somali Data Protection Authority.

Somalia does not yet have a fully enacted comprehensive cybersecurity statute. A dedicated National Cybersecurity Law was approved by the lower house of the Federal Parliament on 26 January 2026, designating the NCA as the top cybersecurity authority, creating the Somalia Computer Incident Response Team (SOM-CIRT), and imposing incident-reporting duties on critical-infrastructure operators, but full enactment (upper-house assent and presidential signature) was not confirmed. In the meantime, the in-force Data Protection Act 2023 already imposes a 72-hour personal-data-breach notification duty, and a separate Cybercrime Bill has been approved at Cabinet level.

Framework: Companies Law No. 18 of 26 December 2019 (and its Regulations) administered by the Office of the Company Registrar at the Federal Ministry of Commerce & Industry, via the eBusiness.gov.so portal; Foreign Investment Law No. 13 of 21 January 2016 (foreign investor registration, administered with the Somalia Investment Promotion Office, SOMINVEST).

On paper, Somalia is unusually open to foreign business formation: the 2019 Companies Law and a World Bank/IFC-backed online registry (launched March 2022) allow 100% foreign-owned companies, impose no minimum capital, and reduced registration to roughly three online steps with certificates issued in about one working day (around four days on average overall). In practice, however, weak institutions, federal fragmentation (procedures differ between Mogadishu and member states), security risks, and inconsistent application of investor-protection guarantees make the real-world environment difficult, Somalia ranked last (190/190) in the World Bank's final Doing Business 2020. Hence the formal regime is easy but execution is constrained.