"Aid agencies express concern at closure of Money Remittance Providers in Kenya"

Every year, Somalis from around the world send approximately $1.3 billion to Somalia to support families and friends. This represents 24-45 percent of the country’s GDP and more than all annual humanitarian aid, development aid and foreign direct investment combined. Studies have shown that money received from overseas is used to meet basic needs, including food, water, healthcare, and education. Just three years on from a devastating famine that killed 258,000, Somalia remains in the grips of crisis and one out of every three Somali families say that without these remittance flows they would not be able to pay for food, school or basic healthcare.

With the closure of MRPs, Somali families are losing their only formal, transparent and regulated channel through which to send and receive money. Aid agencies working in Somalia also risk losing their only means of transferring money to sustain their daily humanitarian and development operations. Aid agencies use these MRPs to pay salaries, contractors, rent, and to deliver all aid activities.