CAIRO [SMN] – Minister of Finance of Somalia Dr. Elmi Mohamud Noor is participating in the conference in the city of Sharma Sheikh, Egypt, representing his Horn of Africa nation.
The Minister met with Canada’s International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan and discussed the process of reforming Somalia’s finances & completing the debt relief process.
Dr. Elmi told the Canadian minister that Somalia has focused on the finalization of the long-running debt relief by completing most of the requirements set by the World Bank and IMF.
For his counterpart, Sajjan indicated that Canada is supporting Somalia as much as it can and praised the strong efforts of the Federal Government on the debt relief issue.
Somalia reached the decision point for IMF debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in March 2020, which saw its debt stock reduce to $3.7 billion from the $5.2 billion it had accumulated by December 2018.
The debt relief is a big hope for Somalia to reclaim its financial position within the international community and allows it to rejoin the global economy after a 30-year exile.
Early this month, Somali President Hassan Sheikh signed a set of anti-corruption directives aimed at boosting the legitimacy and credibility of the country’s financial institutions.
