EVC Plus: Mobile Money as De Facto Banking Infrastructure in Somalia

Somalia's formal banking sector collapsed after decades of conflict, leaving most citizens without bank accounts. Hormuud Telecom's EVC Plus, launched in 2011, filled this gap with a mobile-money service usable on any handset via USSD, without requiring a smartphone or, for years, formal identification.

A 2017 World Bank household survey found that 73% of Somali adults used mobile money monthly (83% in urban areas, 72% in rural areas, 55% among nomadic populations), with roughly $2.7 billion moving through the system every month — equivalent to around a third of Somalia's GDP at the time. EVC Plus is used directly by more than 4.5 million people and by over 145 NGOs to distribute humanitarian cash assistance. In 2022 it became one of only around ten mobile-money services worldwide to achieve GSMA's Mobile Money Certification, re-certified in 2025.

For most of its first decade, EVC Plus operated with essentially no financial regulation — the Central Bank of Somalia issued Hormuud its first mobile-money licence only in 2021, and a Targeted Financial Sanctions law followed in 2023. Academic and UN Panel of Experts reporting has repeatedly flagged that weak "know-your-customer" verification leaves the system vulnerable to money laundering; the UN Panel's 2024 report found Al-Shabaab's total annual revenue exceeded US$150 million in 2023, generated partly through taxation and extortion collected via largely unregulated mobile-money and banking channels. In January 2026, Hormuud began displaying recipients' full names before transfers as part of ongoing efforts to close these gaps. EVC Plus is a genuine case of digital finance reaching populations that formal banking never served, but it also illustrates the risk that financial-inclusion technology can outpace the governance needed to keep it safe.