The Somali Shilling shortened as “SOS” was created by the Somali Republic as the official currency of Somalia in 1962, but its debut goes back some forty years earlier to the early 20s of the twentieth century, circa 1921 when Ex-British Somaliland adopted the “East Africa Shilling”. Italian Somaliland before then was using the “Italian Somaliland Rupia” as its currency from the eighties of the nineteenth century, until it was replaced by the Scelleni Somalo which had the same value as the East African Shilling, as soon as the British captured Southern Somalia, from the Italians during World war II.

The Somali Shilling fared well during the two decades of the sixties and seventies of the last century but soon after started to falter, when the IMF and the World Bank Group came into the country during the 1980s, and put it on a floating exchange rate system, and it started to have a downward tail spin. Since then, it had its own ups and downs i.e., peaks and troughs in economic langage, but like anything Somali, it also developed a resilience of its own despite being outside the control of any official central authority.

It was, indeed, exposed to bouts of inflation, counterfeit printing, public distrust, introduction of competing local currencies within the Somali space, and lack of a monetary authority of substance for long periods of time and many other negative effects and influences. Like anything Somali it survived all and at one time it was touted as a currency which was rising against all possible odds – an investment possibility!!!

Understanding the Somali Shilling is, indeed, understanding the Somali state and the Somali people, and it involves........

© Eurasia Review