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Standards/somqr

SOMQR

TypeNational QR
PrimarySO
MentionedSO
Completeness58%medium

Overview

SOMQR (Somali Quick Response Code) is Somalia's national QR code standard for payments. The Central Bank of Somalia (CBS) launched it in Mogadishu on 20 June 2023 1, 2. It is the standard that payment service providers regulated by CBS follow when they issue QR codes to merchants and consumers, and it "follows the internationally recognized EMVCo standards" 1. Since January 2025, SOMQR payments run over the Somalia Instant Payment System (SIPS), which the Somalia Payment Switch (SPS) operates as SOMQR's scheme manager 4, 5. The specification itself has not been published. Somalia's payments landscape is covered in the country report Somalia report.

History

  • August 2021. CBS launched the National Payment System (NPS), an interbank payment, clearing and settlement system linking the central bank and the 13 licensed commercial banks 14. CBS's own NPS page dates the launch to July 2021 3.
  • March 2023. CBS introduced IBAN compliance for Somali bank accounts 14, 3.
  • 20 June 2023: launch. CBS announced SOMQR in press release Ref. 920-CO-06-23 1. At the launch event in Mogadishu, Governor Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi called it "a low-cost, scalable, secure and interoperable solution towards a cashless society". He also handed operational guidelines for implementing SOMQR to the chairman of the Somali Bankers Association and to private-bank CEOs 2. CBS said it had worked with 13 commercial banks to close an interoperability gap, and that customers of 13 banks and three mobile network operators would be able to use their existing apps 1, 2. Trade press picked up the launch within a week 12, 13, 14.
  • 1 April 2024. The SPS gives this date for SOMQR's debut, "in collaboration with the Central Bank of Somalia and Somali Bankers Association" 6.
  • January 2025. SPS launched SIPS on BPC's SmartVista platform, with QR payment support 4, 5. CBS's account of the launch is dated 26 March 2025 4. The SPS counts SOMQR, IBAN numbering and ISO 20022 messaging among the enablers CBS put in place before SIPS 8.
  • July 2026. In a column for Business Daily, the CBS Governor wrote that SIPS's integration with SOMQR will make digital payments easier for merchants, including informal businesses, and that connecting mobile money operators is the next priority 10. SONNA, Somalia's state news agency, reported the same plan 11.

Conflicting launch dates. The CBS press release and SOMQR page give 20 June 2023 1, 2. CBS's NPS page says SOMQR was "launched in March 2023" 3, and the SPS says it "debuted on 1st April 2024" 6. This page uses 20 June 2023, the date of the dated press release. The 2024 date may mark when SPS put it into service, but no source says so.

Technical specification

SOMQR's message format is not publicly documented. What the fetched sources establish:

Layer What the sources show
Basis Follows EMVCo standards 1, 2; "built upon EMVCo standards" 3. No source names the EMVCo version, and none says whether SOMQR covers EMVCo's Merchant-Presented Mode, its Consumer-Presented Mode, or both. EMVCo publishes specifications for both modes 17
Presentment Merchants show a QR code, and the consumer scans it. The scan routes the transaction data through the SmartVista instant payment system 4, 5
Authentication The consumer confirms with a PIN or an OTP 4, 5
Issuers Payment service providers regulated by CBS 1
Scheme manager and operator Somalia Payment Switch (SPS) 4, 5
Routing SPS routes QR-based transactions between participating banks and processes QR transactions in a standard way across the network 7
Rail SIPS: real time, 24/7/365, with PKI security. CBS is the clearing and settlement agent, with real-time net positions and multiple settlement cycles 4. SIPS is built on ISO 20022 10, 11
Payload fields Not published. EMVCo-based national schemes usually carry the merchant identifier, currency and CRC in TLV fields (see EMVCo MPM), but no SOMQR field table or sample payload was found

The press release notes that the national QR code spares users from typing in the beneficiary's account number for interbank transfers 1.

Use cases

The press release names these services 1:

  • Person-to-person payments and transfers, including interbank transfers without typing an account number.
  • Government receipts: "collection of taxes and fees". At the launch, the Deputy Minister of Finance stressed SOMQR's role in revenue collection 2.
  • Merchant payments: the merchant presents the code and the customer scans it 4.

On SIPS, which carries SOMQR, CBS lists person-to-person transfers, merchant payments, payments to government and government disbursements to citizens. Business-to-person, business-to-government and business-to-business services are still being built 10, 11. CBS presents SOMQR as a way to bring smaller traders and informal businesses into digital payments without special equipment 11.

Implementations

No SOMQR-specific open-source encoder or decoder was found. The specification isn't published, so no library can claim conformance to it. General EMVCo QR libraries exist; they can build and parse EMVCo TLV payloads, but they include no SOMQR profile:

  • mvallim/emv-qrcode: Java, "Java Based EMV QR Code Generator and Parser (MPM, CPM)", 136 stars, last push May 2026 18.
  • dongri/emv-qrcode: Go, "Golang Based EMV QR Code Generator and Parser (MPM, CPM)", 60 stars, last push September 2026 19.

Participating institutions. In its March 2025 SIPS announcement, CBS said seven banks had connected, with six more banks and "major mobile money operators" expected to join later that year 4. An archived SPS partners page from September 2025 lists 12 banks 9: Agro Bank, Amal Bank, Amana Bank, Bushra Business Bank, Dahabshiil Bank, Daryeel Bank, Galaxy International Bank, International Bank of Somalia, Idam Community Bank, MyBank Limited, Salaam Somali Bank and SOMBANK. No source lists which apps accept SOMQR codes.

Comparison

SOMQR (SO) KE-QR Code (KE)
Issuer Central Bank of Somalia 1 Central Bank of Kenya 15
Launched 20 June 2023 1 3 May 2023 15
Basis "EMVCo standards", version not stated 1 EMVCo Merchant-Presented Mode 16
Specification public No: guidelines handed to banks 2 Yes: a standard PDF published by CBK 16
Operator / switch Somalia Payment Switch on SIPS 4 —

When to choose which. Each is the national code for its own country, so the choice follows where the merchant is. For a developer, the practical difference is documentation: KE-QR can be built from CBK's published PDF 16, while a SOMQR implementer needs the guidelines from CBS or SPS 2. Provider-specific Somali codes predate SOMQR; see WAAFI QR.

Fun facts

  • Six weeks after Kenya. CBK launched KE-QR on 3 May 2023 15 and CBS launched SOMQR on 20 June 2023 1. CBS said the launch put Somalia alongside "peers like Kenya and South Africa" with a standardised code 2. Both press releases use nearly the same sentence: SOMQR "will guide how payment service providers regulated by CBS will issue Quick Response Codes (QR) to merchants and consumers" 1, and KE-QR "will guide how Payment Service Providers and banks (institutions) that are regulated by the CBK will issue Quick Response (QR) Codes to consumers and businesses" 15.
  • Built for a market the banks don't lead. The CBS Governor wrote in 2026 that mobile wallets, not bank accounts, serve most Somalis day to day, and that SIPS reaches its "real scale" only once mobile money operators connect 10, 11.

Status

Active, but adoption is still mostly limited to banks. SONNA describes SOMQR as linked to SIPS 11, but the Governor's July 2026 column still speaks of the integration in the future tense: "Its integration with SOMQR … will make digital payments easier" 10. In July 2026 CBS said that, once integration is complete, SIPS will connect 14 commercial banks and eight mobile money and e-wallet providers on one network. Connecting the mobile money operators remains the next step and has no published date 10, 11. CBS also aims to connect SIPS to the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) before the end of 2026 10, 11. No transaction volumes for SOMQR were found.

Sources

Deployments

Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):

source · content/standards/somqr/index.md