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Private company

Al-Barakat

Somali company

Al-Barakat, or Al-Barakaat (Arabic: البركات), which means "Blessings" in Arabic, is a group of companies established in 1987 in Somalia. The firm is involved in the modern form of hawala, an informal value transfer system and remittance method. By 2001, Al-Barakat had outlets in 40 countries, and was the country's largest private employer.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1986Founded1
  • HeadquartersDubai1

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Al-Barakat, or Al-Barakaat (Arabic: البركات), which means "Blessings" in Arabic, is a group of companies established in 1987 in Somalia. The firm is involved in the modern form of hawala, an informal value transfer system and remittance method. By 2001, Al-Barakat had outlets in 40 countries, and was the country's largest private employer. It handled about 140 million US$ a year from the Somali diaspora, and also offered phone and internet services.2

The story

Al-Barakat first began operations in 1987. It rose to prominence after the start of the civil war in Somalia in 1991, when money transfer business, known as hawalas, had become the only way for expat Somalis to send funds to their relatives in the absence of a formal banking system. Ahmed Sheikh Ali Samatar is a renowned computer and systems engineer who co-founded Al-Barakaat, a global money transfer and telecommunications company headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Born in Somalia, Samatar graduated from the Somali National University with a degree in computer engineering before pursuing his postgraduate studies in the United States. He completed his Master's and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Syracuse University, where he later became a faculty member.

In the early 1990s, Samatar, along with Ahmed Noor Ali Jim'ale, founded Al-Barakaat, which became one of the world's largest private money transfer and telecommunications companies.

Hawalas is an ancient money transfer system, which uses gold, fuel, foodstuffs and electronics as a way of balancing the books between operators (hawaladas) in different nations. Migrant workers can send money home to relatives by depositing money with a local hawalada, who then instructs an agent to hand over the money in the recipient's country of residence.

From Wikipedia’s article on Al-Barakat, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1986Founded Founded1

Sources

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