By Anas Ali Dahir, MAPPM
Executive Director, East Africa Association for Research and Development (DAD) | University Lecturer
Somalia has a coastline the East African Community sees as an opportunity for regional trade. Türkiye is supporting Somalia’s maritime security capabilities, while Saudi Arabia has agreed to cooperate on maritime transport. Together, these developments raise a question that matters more than any announcement: Why would a regional trader choose to send a shipment through Somalia?
The EAC has said its members could use Somalia’s coast to increase trade. It has also worked with Somalia on an integration roadmap covering national actions and cooperation with EAC institutions. That creates a basis for joint action. It does not yet identify a maritime service that regional businesses have agreed to use.
The partnerships serve different purposes. Türkiye’s stated undertaking concerns Somalia’s maritime security and capabilities. Saudi Arabia’s Transport General Authority describes cooperation intended to facilitate commercial vessel movement and strengthen maritime connectivity. Somalia and Saudi Arabia have also signed a defence-cooperation agreement, although its publicly reported details are limited. None of these public descriptions establishes a protected EAC trade route or promises lower shipping and insurance costs.
Somalia’s opportunity is to turn these separate relationships into a commercial proposal that can be tested.
Begin with the customer
Somalia should bring interested EAC traders, shipping companies and port operators together to examine one possible service through one Somali port. The starting point should be a specific customer need: a type of cargo, a destination and a delivery schedule for which a Somali route might offer value.
They could then compare the proposed service with the route the customer uses today. That comparison must cover the entire journey: vessel availability, port handling, onward transport, insurance, delivery time and the cost of delays. Geography matters, but traders choose services on performance.
The exercise may reveal an opportunity Somalia can pursue now. It may show that a different service is more promising, or that costs and risks remain too high. Any of those findings would be more useful than investing on the strength of location alone.
Make security part of the offer
Somalia can point to the maritime capabilities it is building. A shipping company, however, needs to assess a particular voyage and port call. It will want to know what safeguards apply, how an incident would be reported and who would respond.
In August 2026, the International Maritime Organization warned of renewed piracy incidents in the Gulf of Aden and surrounding waters. That warning does not mean every Somali port faces the same conditions. It does mean a proposed service needs a current assessment of its own route.
Somali authorities and commercial operators should establish what security arrangements they can provide for that service. They can also explore whether cooperation with Türkiye or Saudi Arabia could contribute within the actual scope of each agreement. Their involvement should be determined with those partners, not assumed in a sales pitch.
Test the service before expanding it
Officials responsible for Somalia’s EAC affairs could bring the relevant agencies, operators and prospective customers together around the strongest proposal. If the commercial and security assessments support it, they could run a limited pilot using available facilities.
The pilot should answer questions a customer would ask: Did the cargo arrive when promised? What did the full journey cost? How were interruptions handled? Would the customer use the service again?
A successful test would give regional partners and investors a reason to consider expansion. If it falls short, Somalia would know which problems to solve first. Either outcome would be more valuable than an untested promise.
Somalia does not have to claim it will become East Africa’s next maritime gateway. It can make a more credible offer: identify one service regional businesses need, prove that it is safe and competitive, and earn their repeat business. That is how its coastline, EAC membership and international partnerships could become a trade advantage.