Abu Dhabi: Somalia is seeking the cooperation of the UAE in regulating the hawala system of money transfer where over $1 billion is remitted annually into the war-battered country due to the lack of a proper banking system.
"It will be a disaster if we close the hawala system. It will only go underground. Our challenge is how to comply with the diversity of international regulations," Mohammed Djirdeh Houssein, chief executive of Somalia's Sahan Commercial Broker, told the Hawala Conference yesterday.
A large chunk of the funds coming into the country through hawala is from the US, the European Union and some from the Gulf where migrant Somalis live and work.
By Stanley Carvalho
Staff Reporter