MADRID Dec. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The president of the Somali state of Puntland, Said Abdulahi Deni, has announced a project for the creation of a new regional currency that would come into force in early 2025 in a new step of his process of separation from the federal government, nine months after broke relations due to disagreements over controversial constitutional amendments.
Puntland stopped using the Somali shilling in 2021 due to pressure from merchants in the port of Bosaso, the state’s large economic hub, and has been using the US dollar since then.
“The Government of Puntland has started a study to create its own currency, similar to what is done in some countries with a federal structure. This currency will be compatible with the financial system of Somalia in the future, when mentality and circumstances improve” , he stated in statements collected by the Somali portal Hiraan on Line.
In March of this year, Puntland withdrew its recognition of the central authorities of Somalia after the national Parliament approved a series of amendments that expand presidential powers that the Puntland authorities understand as a very serious threat to the country’s political structure.
One of the constitutional amendments approved granted the current head of state, Hasan Sheikh Mohamud, the ability to appoint or dismiss the prime minister, something that Puntland understands as a centralizing drive ultimately aimed at wresting powers from the country’s states.
In this context, the Puntland regional government decided, in an extraordinary emergency meeting, that the amendments “annul the laws and agreements based on the federal system that protect the country” and, consequently, opted to withdraw their recognition to federal authorities.
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