Doha: Silatech has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dahabshiil, the largest international payments firm in Africa, and the American Refugee Committee (ARC), an international NGO fighting poverty and unemployment, to promote Somali youth enterprise development and provide employment solutions in Somalia.
In keeping with its mission to create jobs and expand economic opportunities for young people throughout the Arab world, Silatech will collaborate with Dahabshiil and ARC to explore initiatives to promote youth entrepreneurship and self-employment opportunities as a means of alleviating poverty, Silatech said in a press statement yesterday.
As a Somali-founded business, Dahabshiil remains a primary remittance service for the global Somali diaspora, with thousands of outlets in more than 150 countries. Dahabshiil’s portfolio includes Dahabshil Bank International and a leading telecommunication services provider, Somtel.
The initiative between Silatech, Dahabshiil and ARC is the first of its kind in the Somali territories and will leverage Dahabshiil Group’s suite of services as part of an exclusive joint venture. Building on a Silatech-led online crowd-funding platform — which has mobilised more than $3.3m from over 80,000 individual lenders to fully finance the needs of more than 2,700 young Arab micro-entrepreneurs — Silatech, ARC and Dahabshiil will explore adapting the success of this model for the Somali environment.
ARC has a strong presence within the international Somali diaspora, which the initiative would look to tap into as a potential resource to help fund Somali micro-enterprises through the platform.
Reflecting on the partnership, Silatech CEO Dr Tarik M Yousef commented: “Developing a strategy for intentionally targeting younger clients represents an enormous social and business opportunity for financial institutions operating in Somalia. Through this partnership we are delighted to help a leading Somali company like Dahabshiil further fulfil its mission of investing in the betterment of the Somali society.”
Founded in 2008 by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Silatech finds innovative solutions to challenging problems, working with a wide spectrum of organisations, governments and the private sector to foster sustainable, positive change for Arab youth. QNA
