The Bile Initiative — An AI Skills Track for Somalia's Final-Year ICT Students

The Bile Initiative is a domestically funded tech-skilling programme for final-year Computer Science and ICT students in Somalia, launched in October 2024 by Tabaarak ICT Solutions and the Somali Research and Education Network (SomaliREN), with funding from the Hormuud Salaam Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hormuud Telecom, Somalia's largest telecommunications operator. Its third edition launched in Mogadishu on 24 August 2026, training 160 students — 43% women — drawn from 22 universities across four tracks: software development, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and software analysis, alongside a six-month internship at Tabaarak ICT Solutions intended to connect graduates directly to employers.
Organisers frame the programme's local funding and operation as a deliberate contrast to AI-skilling programmes in the region backed by foreign technology companies, arguing this improves long-term sustainability. Since its 2024 launch the initiative has trained more than 300 students across three cohorts, growing from an initial intake of 150 students.
No independent evaluation, skills assessment or job-placement data has been published for any of the three cohorts, and no public AI-ethics, data-protection or curriculum-transparency documentation accompanies the programme; claims of employability rest on the internship structure and organisers' statements rather than measured outcomes.

Read the full analysis: https://www.garoweonline.com/en/featured/business-n/hormuud-salaam-foundation-somaliren-and-tabaarak-ict-launch-bile-initiative-to-advance-tech-skills-in-somalia