Shortcut to a brighter future: How technology is transforming education in Somalia

Currently, this is not issued directly by the schools, but by a central examination and certification centre of the Ministry of Education. Students had to travel long distances and wait weeks – sometimes months – to get a stamp and a signature on their certificates. This delay often meant missing university application deadlines, losing out on scholarships, or facing hurdles when applying for jobs.

Take Abdi Warsame, a determined student from a rural village in Puntland. After graduating high school, he dreamed of studying medicine abroad. By the time he received his certificate from the certification centre, the deadline for applying for a scholarship had already passed, forcing him to put his dreams on hold. Warsame’s story is just one of many where slow bureaucratic processes have blocked bright futures.

According to the Annual Education Statistics Report 2021-2022, approximately 170,000 students enroll in secondary schools every year, and obtaining the certificate has been a barrier. But a shift is taking place. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education (MOECHE) jointly with the Ministry of Communication and Technology (MoCT) are spearheading a digital transformation initiative to ensure students like Warsame never face such barriers again. Under the leadership of Mr. Fahad Abdirahman, Head of the Education Management Information System Department at MOECHE, together with a dedicated team of digital innovators, Somalia is now revolutionizing the way high school certificates are issued.

With the launch of the High School Certificate System (HSC), official paper certificates are now being replaced by digital originals. Students can apply for their certificates online, securely pay fees, and receive a verified digital certificate instantly – all without the need for long trips or manual paperwork.

The new digital platform, HSC, built on open source, ensures that students can seamlessly log in using their national digital ID through the ID-verification app eAqoonsi to retrieve their exam results automatically and receive a tamper-proof, shareable digital certificate that can be downloaded and printed. In collaboration with government agencies such as the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), development partners including German development cooperation, and technology partners such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Fahad Abdirahman and his team have developed a streamlined, automated system to replace the cumbersome manual process.

Driving Somalia’s Digital Future

For Fahad Abdirahman and his team, this project is about more than just digitizing certificates – it’s about laying the foundation for a smarter, more efficient government. Once fully implemented, the system can serve as a model for digitizing other government services, such as birth certificates, employment records, and university transcripts.

With faster access to their certificates thousands of Somali students can seize new opportunities, whether in higher education, employment, or beyond.

About the GovStack Approach

How was it possible to develop this new service that fast? Fahad and his team built their project with the support of the GovStack initiative. GovStack, an initiative from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), was designed to help governments build digital services faster. In Somalia GovStack is co-funded by the European Commission (EC) as part of the Initiative for Digital Government and Cybersecurity in the Horn of Africa.

In the case of Somalia’s High School Certificate System (HSC), GovStack integrates predefined open and interoperable building blocks, including Registration, Identity Verification, and Consent (eAqoonsi NIRA ID), Payments (SomaliPay and GovPay) and Digital Registries (MOECHE Examination System).