Always Moving Always Sharing Somaliland

NUMBERS & LIMITED LITERACY
Literacy is complex, as those educated before 1970—if
taught to read and write may have learned Arabic or one
of the many Arabic-based permutations of the Somali
alphabet prior to 1972.
Zaad is very numbers-based, and as numbers transcend
alphabets and are easily learned, recognised and
remembered by those who are semi-literate, it ceases to
be a significant barrier for one to remember their Zaad
number.
SOMALILAND LITERACY RATES BY AGE 1 :
100
80
60
40
Note: Phonemic languages (like Somali) have interesting
implications when it comes to any human-computer
interface. With multiple spellings for any one thing
(Ahmed vs. Axmed, for example) expanding beyond a
number/pin-based system will be challenging.
20
MALE
FEMALE
For example, of the three accounts opened while in
Somaliland (Dahabshiil, e-Dahab, Zaad), Lauren’s email
address was misspelled by at least one character each
time.
5-14 15-24 25-34 35-54 55-64 65+
THE SOMALI ALPHABET FOLLOWS AN ARABIC-BASED ORDER WITH A LATIN ALPHABET:
', B, T, J, X, KH, D, R, S, SH, DH, C, G, F, Q, K, L, M, N, W, H, Y, A, E, I, O, U.
[1] Labour Force Survey Somaliland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Latin_alphabet
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/somali.htm
B&MG - SOMALILAND MOBILE MONEY STUDIO D RADIODURANS
MAY 2015 61