Somali Business Community In Africa...

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oxymoron
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Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

Hass petroleum is a large player in the energy industry of East & Central Africa

quote]Founded in 1997 by two brothers, the late Abdirizak Ali Hassan and Abdinasir Ali Hassan, the HASS Petroleum Group is a regional Oil Marketing Company (OMC) with significant presence in East Africa and the Great Lakes region. From its humble beginnings as a fuel re-seller, the company is now one of the most renowned oil marketers, with fully fledged operating business units in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

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With its corporate headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, the company’s core business is the importation, distribution and marketing of petroleum products in countries where we have registered business units. The company also has invested significantly in retail outlets - petrol stations - and sizable oil storage terminals. The company's recently commissioned oil terminal in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania has an installed capacity of 34 million liters, and serves our southern corridor markets of Tanzania, and the neighboring landlocked countries of D.R.C. - Katanga Province, Rwanda, Burundi and Zambia. The northern corridor markets - Kenya, Uganda, Southern Sudan, and D.R.C. (North-East provinces) - are served by imports via Kenya's Mombasa port.[/quote]

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Last edited by oxymoron on Sat Dec 28, 2013 7:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
original dervish
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Re: Hass Petroleum -Continues To Expand

Post by original dervish »

Truly inspiring......thanks. :up:
All of these dynamic & visionary Somali's are dissuaded from investing in Somalia, because of corruption, instability and lack of law.
Imagine what they could achieve if we had honest & effective govt. :blessed:
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

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The rise, fall and rise of Uganda’s rich

Hussein Shire

He’s one of the quiet tycoons. He keeps out of sight and hates showing off his wealth. But when he walks into a room, his very presence whiffs of wealth.

Shire is the owner and CEO of Gateway, one of the largest bus companies in the country - with more than 100 buses operating all over Uganda.

Gateway is also the only Ugandan company that operates a service to Kenya.

Born in Tororo, Shire, a Somali by origin started his career in the transport industry, ferrying passenger in a blue Peugeot 504 car along the Tororo – Malaba highway.

Besides this, he also had a grocery shop in Tororo town, and would sell sodas and ice (barafu) to travellers.

To date he still owns the shop.

With profits from the Peugeot and the shop, Shire bought a kamunye and a trailer. Years later, he established the Gateway Bus Company, which is a runaway success. - SOURCE
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

Devastated at home, Somali businesses thrive in Uganda

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City Oil Ltd

Their history is knit with episodes of devastation – war and hunger. They have been accused of offering a safe haven to Al Qaeda terrorists. And recently, they have redefined the art of piracy, in which large ships have been captured and released after huge ransom payouts. <--

Yet, despite their shattered hopes back home, the Somali community in Uganda has taken the economic landscape by storm, enjoying a commendable share of the country’s fuel industry, among other sectors. DEVAPRIYO DAS looks at this business community

GOOD SOURCING

Hassan Ahmed, a Ugandan Somali, and Director of the prominent Somali-owned City Oil franchise, hints at the secret behind Somalis’ success in business. “Somalis have always had links to many areas of the world”, he says.

“With that link, they are able to have very good sourcing. Every time you source well, it will result in benefitting the consumer, because you are able to bring the costs down.”

That strategy bodes well with Uganda’s consumers who depend heavily on imports but whose purchasing power is low. It also explains why Somali businesses have become an accepted part of Uganda’s commercial life, covering essential services like fuel stations, foreign exchange, money transfer, and supermarkets.

FUEL STATIONS

Ahmed reveals that City Oil was formed in the 1980s as Mandela Auto Spares, and started by selling spare parts. The company then graduated to selling tyres, before realising it could capture a larger market by setting up fuel stations.

“If you look at our stations, they are not your typical stations”, says Ahmed. “They are giving auxillary services that complement fuel.”Today, there are various Somali owned petrol station chains, including Hashi Empex, Hass Petroleum and Hared.

It is a competitive market, especially as global oil prices have followed no perceivable logic in the past 18 months; which also means the auxillary services provided by chains like City Oil have not automatically led to more customers in these difficult times.

“The public has been very sensitive to price,” Ahmed remarks. “We find that it’s very difficult to sell fuel if you don’t have the right price at the pump.”

Following the liberalisation of the fuel market in Uganda, Somali fuel enterprises have helped make prices more competitive. “Right now the (profit) margins are at their lowest point”, Ahmed observes.

He believes that even if Uganda commercially exploits and refines its crude oil reserves locally, Somali fuel stations would remain in business. “Because that fuel still needs to be pumped into vehicles”, he says. “A network needs to exist”.

HISTORIC LINKS

It is a network built carefully over time. The first Somalis to settle in Uganda came in colonial times, as the so-called Somali Scouts in the imperial British Army. Many stayed on and assumed Ugandan citizenship, with large numbers working in the meat industry.

Thousands are believed to have left the country during Idi Amin’s rule, returning only under the NRM Government in 1986.

The current conflict in Somalia has witnessed an influx of refugees into Uganda. Some have been settled in camps such as Nakivaale in Western Uganda, while others have been absorbed by relatives living in Kisenyi and surrounding areas.

Many have prospered, while some, like construction queen Amina Hersi Moghe, owner of the multi-million-dollar Oasis Centre and Laburnum Courts in Kampala, have defied gender and cultural stereotypes to become spectacularly successful. In fact, Ms Hersi was named Woman Investor of the Year 2008 by the Uganda Investment Authority.

GOOD RATES

Being a resilient people, Somalis have prospered because they are willing to take risks and accept smaller profits. Yassin Mattan, Head of Business Affairs for the Somali Community Association in Uganda, explains that when it comes to trade, “everyone wants to be very competitive in terms of the pricing factor, so it’s the margin that people are looking for.

While some people are looking for a higher margin, these guys [Somalis] are looking for a lower margin. They’re looking at the turnover.”Hassan Mohammed Hersi, for example, has been Manager of Half East Forex Bureau on Kampala Road, for 11 years.

“The business of exchange is all about competition and it’s very tough business,” he says. “It needs experience, needs also capital, and needs you to be a well-known person in the business for a long time.”

Born and bred in Uganda, with many business contacts, Hersi felt he could profitably run a forex business. Today, most of his clients are Indian and Chinese traders involved in high-volume import-export businesses. “It’s all about your rates,” he responds, when asked how he attracts and retains his customers.

“People know you through your rates, what good service you give them, how your location is, security, all that. [But] if your rate is the best, they will come and buy from you and sell to you.”

BREAKING GROUND

Yassin Mattan himself took a risk by engaging in commercial farming, a first for Uganda’s Somali community. “I saw it as an opportunity, this lack of commercial farmers in Uganda,” Mattan says, “and the potential was there both as a business, and at the same time, for providing food security for the country.”

Today, his Kayunga-based Maple Farms employs 40 people, utilises scientific farming practices, concentrates on growing maize and basmati rice over 140 acres, and is generating roughly 50 tons of food grain per year via two annual harvests.

Most of the crop is sold locally as internal demand -exacerbated by food shortages and sales of Ugandan harvests in neighbouring markets like South Sudan - has skyrocketed.

Recently, the Somali community in Uganda announced it would earmark Shs1.4 billion to further expand food grain production in Kayunga.

As Somalis continue to invest in Uganda’s burgeoning small and medium enterprise sector and contribute a growing share of taxes, it becomes clear: this is a community that is thriving and here to stay. - Source
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

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Hashi Energy Ltd started out as a Kerosene distributor for Chevron Kenya Ltd then known as Caltex Oil Kenya Ltd. The Company engaged in filling Kerosene Jerricans in Mombasa and distributing to Rwanda and DRC markets. These markets were challenging, with unfavourable terrains and political instability.

In the mid 1990s Hashi Energy acquired depots in Eldoret and Kisumu and used these facilities to supply Kerosene to the western Kenyan market and to export to DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.

In 1996 Hashi Energy Uganda Ltd was incorporated as a subsidiary to Hashi Energy Ltd. The company began selling bulk fuel to customers in Uganda and DRC. In 2001 the company acquired a depot in Jinja which was used as an operational hub for the Uganda market. Thereafter the company acquired several service stations and mini depots in Jinja, Kampala and its neighboring towns.

In 2007 Hashi Rwanda SARL was formed in Kigali, 2 years later the company acquired 2 service stations in Kigali.

Our Business

Hashi Energy’s core business is importation, distribution and marketing of refined petroleum products; the company is one of the oldest indigenous oil marketing companies in Kenya.

Over the years the company has grown to become a major player in the Oil business supplying over 240 million lts of petroleum products annually to the East African region. The company has a capacity to supply 360 million litres per year.

http://www.hashienergy.com/[/img]

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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

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Somali operators (both Somalian and Kenyan-Somalis) have established direct bus lines such as E-couch, Maslah, Crown and Garissa Bus. These buses also link Nairobi to other East African capitals and major cities. In Nairobi, Somalis have also entered the matatu (minibus) business, which began as an informal mode of transport but was later legalized and now forms a key part of the public transportation system.

In the last 17 years, over ten Somali trucking companies have been formed in Kenya. With an initial capital investment of around $5 million each these now show substantial annual profits of around $20 million. Leading companies such as Awale, Tipper Freighters, Dakawe and Ainu-Shamsi Transporters own hundreds of trucks each. There are also many individually owned and run truck companies operating with two to six trucks, and this growing sector plays a very significant role in Kenyan transport market.
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

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Zambia: Oil Firm to Invest K3.5 Billion in Kasama Filling Station
22 December 2013

In an effort to expand operations in Zambia, a local firm Continental Oil Company has undertaken to invest K3.5 billion in the construction of a new filling station in Kasama to serve Northern Province.

Company representative Osman Farah said in Kitwe yesterday that, the nine- month project was expected to commence in the first week of January, 2012. Continental Oil Company is a Zambian registered company owned by a Somali with its presence in Ndola, Kapiri Mposhi and Mpika.


Mr Farah said the proposed Continental Oil Company modern filling station is located at Plot Number Six, Mbala Road in the Kasama Central Business District.

The company has fuel depots with the capacity of 2.5 million litres, while an additional 3.5 million litres would be included to expand capacity to six million litres
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Re: Hass Petroleum -Continues To Expand

Post by oxymoron »

original dervish wrote:Truly inspiring......thanks. :up:
All of these dynamic & visionary Somali's are dissuaded from investing in Somalia, because of corruption, instability and lack of law.
Imagine what they could achieve if we had honest & effective govt. :blessed:
The possibilities are endless indeed, but when you have tuugo leadership who's plan is to enrich themselves rather than lead you got a huge problem.
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

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Mohammed Abdillahi Kahin 'Ogsadey (b.1920s-2006) was a Somali business tycoon based in Ethiopia, where he established MAO Harar Horse, the first African corporation to export coffee.
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If you think the Harrar Horse logo is popular here, you should see what it means in Ethiopia. Ogsadey’s reputation is legendary: first beginning as a truck driver, then becoming the first native African coffee exporter in Ethiopia, and ultimately, building a coffee empire which is famous throughout the county and the world. I’m not exaggerating. As soon as the horse logo and the driver of the company jeep were identified, entire villages would swarm chanting: OG-SA-DEY!-OG-SA-DEY! One might think that kind of adulation could affect one’s ego. I never saw that. Everyone was treated seriously and with respect, as if they were the biggest buyers in the world.

He once drove me to a place in the Harrar growing region three hours from his home in Dire Dawa. While listening to recorded prayers from the Koran on the tape player, Ogsadey told me a story of how, in the good old days, getting to this same place would take two to three weeks, and require winches, machetes and guns to ward off pirates, and in my imagination, big hungry animals.

He worked tirelessly to the end. In his eighties, retirement never occurred to him. Just a few years ago he invested in two big new warehouses. Hundreds of big rigs with the Harrar Horse logo are on the road. He took pride pointing out any new factories or new neon lights in Addis Ababa. He possessed a patriotic pride in his county; despite its poverty, he was ever optimistic. Perhaps a contradiction, he greatly admired both Presidents Reagan and Clinton. Reagan for bringing down that wall, and Clinton, for his tireless statesmanship and efforts to bring peace to the world, particularly in the Middle East. When the Communists took power in Ethiopia, they seized all of Ogsadey’s assets. With a big smile he would tell the story of how they could not figure out how to run the coffee business, so wisely, they gave it all back.

Never, despite frost, droughts, up markets or down markets, did we ever have concern about our contracts with MAO. Doing business was a pleasure. Straightforward, old-fashioned and old school in the most positive sense--- the words honorable and integrity come to mind. He was a tremendous mentor and influence. Together, we had the opportunity, with the help of our customers, to make some significant donations to the Dil Chora Hospital in Dire Dawa. Royal will continue charitable work in Ethiopia as long as we are in business. In this way we will continue to honor our great friend. May he rest in peace.
http://royalcoffeenews.blogspot.com/200 ... horse.html
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by original dervish »

Somalia has both human & natural resources....everything needed to develop.
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by oxymoron »

original dervish wrote:Somalia has both human & natural resources....everything needed to develop.
minus a dozen mooryaans it's a perfect country. :ugeek:
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by GeoSeven »

Oxy, nice thread :up:
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by caaddil »

The companies posted hera,waa harti iyo isaaq as far as aan ogahey.
Ogsadey= isaaq
City oil/Omar mandela= harti/majeerteen
Hashi energy=harti/majeerteen
Hass petroleum=harti/dhulbahante
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by caaddil »

Sida la-xaqiijiyey 2-da shaqsi oo maanta soomaali-da la'oran karo waa billionaire waa-
Omar mandela the owner of cityoil and real estate
Khadija mooge hersi owner of oasis mall in Uganda,real estate devolaper.
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Re: Somali Business Community In Africa...

Post by guhad122 »

caaddil wrote:The companies posted hera,waa harti iyo isaaq as far as aan ogahey.
Ogsadey= isaaq
City oil/Omar mandela= harti/majeerteen
Hashi energy=harti/majeerteen
Hass petroleum=harti/dhulbahante
I don't want to change this into clan bashing as this is a very good thread but the reason those two clans are doing good in east African businesses has something to do with their close relationships with the British. Remember that many Hartis and Isaaqs established businesses and residences in many parts of east Africa especially Kenya, Tanzania and Ugandha. For example, there are huge Isaaq and Harti Kenyans who basically have no connections to the NFD as they came as Askaris back in the second world war with the British.
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