Expertise / Market Entry

Enter Somalia with your legal position settled.

Somalia is open for business, and the rules are real: a Companies Law, sector licensing, a new investment framework, regulators who expect to be dealt with properly. Companies that treat entry as paperwork discover the gaps at the worst moment — in a dispute, a licence renewal, or a counterparty's due diligence.

RESPONSIBLE PARTNERS

Mohamed Abdulkadir Ali
International clients & structuring

Abdirizak Mustaf Ahmed
Corporate, employment & operations

Discuss a market entry

THE MARKET SOMALIA IS JOINING — NOT LEAVING

Framework as at the 2026/27 guide edition

8th

partner state of the East African Community — joined 4 March 2024

50th

AfCFTA State Party — ratification instrument scheduled September 2026

2019

Companies Law No. 18 — incorporation through the eBusiness portal, typically in days

2023

Investors & Investments Protection Law — transfer of funds, expropriation standards, arbitration

HOW WE HELP

Six lines of work, one thread: the right sequence, the first time. Registration is the easy step — the order of everything after it is where entries go wrong.

Establishment & registration

The right corporate form under the Companies Law — private limited company, branch or representative office — chosen against your sector's licensing rules before incorporating, not after.

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Sector licensing & approvals

Who regulates you, what they expect, and the sequence: registration → tax → sector licence → operational registrations. Unwinding a wrong-entity choice after a licence has issued is expensive.

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Investment approvals & protections

The 2023 protection law's transfer, expropriation and arbitration standards, and the new investment-agency machinery as it operationalises — confirmed at entry, not assumed.

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Commercial contracts

Supply, distribution, agency, services and leases — drafted for Somali enforcement reality, not adapted from another market's precedent.

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Employment & work permits

Contracts that satisfy the Labour Code today and anticipate the pending revision; employer-sponsored permits for foreign staff, sequenced against where the work actually happens.

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Ongoing country counsel

A retained Somali answer, on call — the firm you ring before you sign, not after.

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MARKET ENTRY / COUNTRY COUNSEL

The firm you call before you sign.

A standing arrangement: one firm, accountable over time, answering as questions arise rather than matter by matter.

COVERS

Contracts, renewals and regulator correspondence

Employment questions as they arise

A partner who already knows your file

The firm has held this role for a global airline, over years.

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MARKET ENTRY / ESTABLISHMENT

The entity should fit the licence — not the other way round.

Local company or branch, chosen against what the business will actually do — then registered without drama.

COVERS

Local subsidiaries & foreign branches

Registration & corporate documents

Structure advice before the form

Registered under the 2019 Companies Law framework.

Discuss market entry →

MARKET ENTRY / SECTOR LICENSING

Which regulator will care — answered before you commit.

Mapping every licence a model touches, and sequencing applications so the launch date survives contact with the regulator.

COVERS

Regulatory mapping & perimeter checks

Licence applications & sequencing

Federal & member-state approvals

Licensing advice under laws that were weeks old.

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MARKET ENTRY / INVESTMENT PROTECTIONS

The 2023 protections are real. We make them attach.

Investor registration and the statutory floor — treatment, transfers, expropriation compensation — built into the structure.

COVERS

SOMINVEST registration & incentives

Investors & Investments Protection Law 2023

Repatriation & transfer mechanics

Structured so protections attach to the right entity.

Discuss market entry →

MARKET ENTRY / COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS

Contracts that work under Somali law — not resemble the group precedent.

Distribution, agency, supply and service agreements drafted for enforceability where the counterparty actually is.

COVERS

Distribution, agency & supply

Service & partnership agreements

Enforceability-first dispute clauses

Drafted backwards from the asset, not the precedent.

Discuss market entry →

MARKET ENTRY / EMPLOYMENT

Hire against the law in force.

Contracts under Labour Code No. 36 of 2024, global HR policies localized, and permits sequenced before mobilisation.

COVERS

Employment contracts under Law No. 36

Global HR policies, localized

Work & stay permits for foreign staff

Rebuilt an international employer's rules, gap by gap.

Discuss an employment matter →

PROOF — SELECTED WORK

CASE STUDY

Entering Somalia, properly

The Somali incorporation and market entry of an international policy consultancy — corporate form, registration and contracts, sequenced right the first time.

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SELECTED WORK

Governance for a European packaging multinational

Corporate governance, regulatory compliance and contractual advisory for an operating multinational — the unglamorous work that keeps an entry compliant after the ribbon is cut.

— A seafood exporters' association structured, with its member cooperatives and constitution

— Somali media and broadcasting companies advised on contracts and regulatory compliance

— Before co-founding Insaaf, a partner ran the legal workstream of a World Bank–financed business-environment reform programme in Somaliland — the regulations, forms and licensing framework companies now use

FROM SOMALIA LAW BLOG

Doing business in Somalia in 2026: the legal questions to answer before you enter →

The statutes, the regulators and the entry sequence — dated, versioned, updated when the law changes

Entering the market?

A scoping conversation costs nothing and settles the first question: the right entity, in the right sequence, for your sector.

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