International brands are opening in Mogadishu, and Somalis are the ones bringing them

MOGADISHU (SONNA): An international menswear retailer opened in Mogadishu this week, the latest in a series of arrivals that has brought foreign chains back to a capital their sector left decades ago.

The Deputy Governor of Banadir, who opened the shop, said the security and development now in the city are what made it possible, and that the administration wants more international brands to establish themselves in the country. He said Somalis previously travelled abroad to buy the labels the shop carries, and that having them available in the city where people live is a welcome change.

The pattern behind that remark is the more substantial story. In June the South African flame-grilled chicken chain Galito’s opened its first restaurant in Somalia, and the company announced Somalia as its newest territory, adding it to a network that spans more than fourteen countries. The Turkish clothing retailer LC Waikiki, which operates over 1,250 stores in 55 countries, opened in Mogadishu at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre, who commended the Somali businessmen who had brought the venture about. The Deputy Governor named Giordano and Chef Eyad among the others now trading in the city.

What connects them is not that foreign companies have decided to enter Somalia. It is that Somali companies have acquired the right to operate them. The master franchise for Galito’s in Somalia is held by Feeto Foods Limited, and the arrival followed years of work by the Somali-Dutch entrepreneur Mohamed Bashir Osman, known as Midnimo, formerly the company’s chief executive and now a board member, who pursued the franchise for his ancestral country. The Prime Minister’s remarks at the LC Waikiki opening credited Somali businessmen in the same way.

That distinction matters. A foreign company opening a branch office takes its profits out. A Somali company buying a master franchise brings a brand, a supply chain and an operating standard into the country and keeps the business in Somali hands. It is also the exact thing four government ministers have spent the past two months asking Somali capital to do.

The Deputy Prime Minister told a trade forum in August that Somali capital has stayed out of productive sectors. The Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation argued at an agricultural forum that a million dollars placed in a farm returns more than the same sum in an apartment block. The Minister of Fisheries and Blue Economy has pressed investors to enter a sector he describes as underdeveloped. The Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation told business figures at an airport last month that Somalis have built substantial assets in Nairobi, in Egypt and in Türkiye while their land and their futures are in Somalia.

The franchise arrivals are that argument being acted on without being asked. In several cases the capital is diaspora capital, brought back by Somalis who spent years abroad and returned with the commercial relationships to make it work.

There is a second reason these openings carry weight. International chains do not enter markets as a gesture. A franchisor assesses whether a location can sustain the model, whether supply can be maintained, whether staff can be trained to the standard, and whether customers will spend. Each arrival is a company’s own judgement that Mogadishu now meets those conditions, and that judgement is made by people with money at risk rather than by anyone with a case to argue.

The same calculation has been visible in the air. SalamAir of Oman opened a route to Mogadishu on 31 August, restoring a direct connection with Muscat after more than three decades, and Jubba Airways resumed international flights to five destinations in September. The Transport Minister said around ten airlines now serve the country.

What the arrivals establish is worth stating plainly. Companies that assess markets for a living have concluded that Mogadishu supports a business model requiring stable supply, trained staff and customers confident enough to shop in the evening. Somali firms have put up the capital to run them, and the Banadir administration says it wants more to follow. That is a different kind of evidence about a city than any statement about it.