D<\/span>ebt relief is just the beginning of real change for Somalia. The country has been suffocating under the huge weight of unsustainable debt for more than three decades. Between 2012 to February 2017, when I led the first internationally recognised government since the collapse of the state in 1991, we realised quickly that we had to re-engage with all the international financial institutions and our bilateral and multilateral creditors to address this crippling impediment to our economic development.<\/p>\n

Somalia owed more than $5bn (\u00a33.9bn). And the interest and charges on these debts kept mounting. As a new government in a post-conflict state, fighting international terrorism, but with the ambition to rebuild\u00a0Somalia<\/a>, we had to act.<\/p>\n

There was no way to repay the debt given the deep-rooted economic challenges facing our fragile country. Accordingly, we embarked on a rigorous but fruitful debt relief journey through the\u00a0 Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC)<\/a>\u00a0with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which required the Somali government to undertake significant and challenging yet strategic macroeconomic and social reforms to address institutional weaknesses, enhance public trust in government, transform the economy and create opportunities for our people.<\/p>\n

Somalia\u2019s debt relief journey was no simple task; it took nearly a decade, three different administrations, two presidents and four finance ministers to attain debt relief from the boards of the\u00a0 World Bank<\/a>\u00a0and IMF on 13 December.<\/p>\n

Ironically, in Somalia\u2019s highly active and competitive political landscape, achieving debt relief was one of the key unifiers of political actors of all persuasions. Furthermore, the process ensured there was a systematic review by the Somali government and people of their own economic history, fiscal borrowing and the socioeconomic destruction of almost three decades of civil war. In fact, most of Somalia\u2019s unsustainable debts is accrued interest payments that could not be serviced during the painful, prolonged period of state collapse.<\/p>\n

Somalia\u2019s economic reform efforts focused firmly on rebuilding the fundamentals of state institutions, including improving public financial management, good governance, transparency, accountability and state-citizens relations. Underpinning all of these was the absolute priority \u2013 which remains to this day \u2013 of raising domestic revenue to cover the cost of running federal government, supporting Somalia\u2019s federal member states and investing in essential public services such as education and health.<\/p>\n