Business
Profile: Abdirashid Duale CEO of Dahabshiil
Abdirashid Duale CEO of Dahabshiil. PHOTO/File
The story behind international money transfer Dahabshiil truly is one of rags to riches.
The company, now one of the largest money transfer businesses in the Horn of Africa, was started by African entrepreneur Mohamed Duale. In the 1970s, he fled Somalia with his family when civil war broke out in 1988 to England. With very limited resources, Duale set about rebuilding his business in his mission to serve African communities.
With an ever-increasing Somali population, Dahabshiil flourished in London and has gone from strength to strength. In 2009, Dahabshiil made banking history and launched the first ever debit card in Somaliland and the following year opened an Islamic bank in Djibouti. Then in 2010, a telecommunications provider, Somtel, was launched. The organization is largely owned by Dahabshiil, and provides telecommunications services in the Somaliland region.
More than 40 years on and Dahabshiil still ensures the values it was built on are adhered to – trust and responsibility. The business has zero debt, remains entirely family-owned and is committed to its fair commission fee policy.
CEO Abdirashid Duale spoke to African Business Review exclusively to discuss how the company means much more to him than just making profit, demonstrated by its recent US$100,000 investment in helping the Somalian health and education service in the wake of the devastating drought, working with many NGOs.
