Hiiraan Online
Tuesday August 20, 2019
MOGADISHU (HOL) - Somalia’s mobile money platform EVC crashed Tuesday cutting off millions of Somalis from the country’s electronic money pipeline which holds over a billion dollars monthly.
The EVC platform powered by Somalia’s largest telecommunication company Hormuud Telecom could not be accessed in many parts of Somalia Tuesday according to multiple sources across the country.
Hiiraan Online could not reach Hormuud Telecom for comment regarding the outage which affected businesses and individual transactions. It was not immediately clear what the caused glitch, but service later restored.
According to the World Bank report in 2018, an estimated 155 million mobile money transactions amounting to about $2.7 billion a month take place in Somalia.
The global lender however warned that any disruptions in the mobile money system could adversely affect the economy since there are no strong legal frameworks regulating mobile money in Somalia
“Unmitigated disruption in service delivery including transient outages caused by technical glitches could be devastating for the livelihoods of the Somali population that depend on mobile money services to meet their daily needs,” the 3rd Somali Economic Updates notes.