INSAAF LAW GROUP
Expertise  /  Projects & Transport

Infrastructure counsel from both sides of the table.

Somalia's ports, power and transport links are being rebuilt through concessions, public-private partnerships and foreign operators — under frameworks younger than the projects themselves. The legal risk is structural: which government signs, which law governs, what happens when the framework changes mid-concession.
RESPONSIBLE PARTNERS
Mohamed Abdulkadir Ali
Practice lead · led the port-sector modernization legal work
Hamza I. Abdullahi
Energy & petroleum regulation
Discuss a project
THE SECTOR — REAL NUMBERS, PUBLIC RECORD
Sources: World Bank CPPI 2024 · Mogadishu Port · Electricity Act 2023
#1
most efficient port in East Africa — Mogadishu, per the World Bank's 2024 Container Port Performance Index
55/45
the government/operator revenue split under the renegotiated Mogadishu port concession (2020)
21,650
TEU through Mogadishu in a record month (January 2026) — capacity raised to 250,000 TEU/year in 2025
50%
renewable-electricity target by 2028 under the national plan — the legal work behind it is happening now
HOW WE HELP
Our partners worked these questions from the government side before the firm worked them from the operator side. Few advisers anywhere have read Somalia's concession documents from both directions.
PROJECTS & TRANSPORT  /  CONCESSIONS & PPPS
We have read the documents everyone else reasons about.
Concession and PPP advice grounded in Somalia's actual agreements — what a grantor can honour, and what should be restructured.
COVERS
Concession review, drafting & renegotiation support
PPP structuring under the moving framework
Grantor capacity & the federal question
Partners analysed the Mogadishu port concession itself.
Discuss a concession →
PROJECTS & TRANSPORT  /  THE FEDERAL QUESTION
Who is granting the right — and can they?
Authority mapping before contract drafting: which institution grants what, under which statute, with whose consent.
COVERS
Authority maps, right by right
Federal & member-state analysis
Grantor capacity opinions
Partners read the port concession from both sides.
Discuss a project →
PROJECTS & TRANSPORT  /  ENERGY
Generation, transmission, distribution — all licensed.
Electricity Act 2023 licensing before the NEA, power-purchase terms and project documents that anticipate the regulator.
COVERS
NEA licences under Article 26
PPAs & project agreements
Solar & mini-grid frameworks
Advised Somalia's national electricity regulator.
Discuss a project →
PROJECTS & TRANSPORT  /  PETROLEUM
PSAs on the 2020 law's terms — including the 20%.
The Petroleum Law 2020, the Somali Petroleum Authority and production-sharing structures with national participation built in.
COVERS
PSA structuring & review
SPA authorisations & compliance
National-participation mechanics
Framework advice grounded in the statute itself.
Discuss a project →
PROJECTS & TRANSPORT  /  AVIATION
Standing-counsel discipline for carriers.
Regulatory compliance, operating requirements and commercial contracts for airlines serving Somalia.
COVERS
Operating & regulatory compliance
Commercial & ground-handling contracts
Aviation disputes & claims
Somali counsel to Turkish Airlines, multi-year.
Discuss a transport matter →
PROJECTS & TRANSPORT  /  PORTS & SHIPPING
A working port's disputes, run where they decide.
Agency, cargo and charter questions, port liability — and parallel-track dispute strategy when matters turn contentious.
COVERS
Cargo, agency & charter advice
Port liability & operations
Arbitration & local-court strategy
Represented Maersk at Mogadishu Port.
Discuss a ports matter →
PROJECTS & TRANSPORT  /  MINING
Extractives need the authority map most of all.
Mineral rights and mining approvals in a federal system — licence, land and community layers mapped before capital commits.
COVERS
Mineral rights & licensing
Federal & member-state authority
Land, community & export layers
The framework is moving — we date every answer.
Discuss a mining project →
PROOF — SELECTED WORK
CASE STUDY
Two decades inside Somalia's port framework
Concession review for the federal government, port-sector modernization for the ministry, counsel to a port authority — and representation for the operators living under the framework.
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CASE STUDY
Counsel to Turkish Airlines in Somalia
Multi-year Somali counsel to the airline that reconnected Mogadishu to the world — regulatory, aviation-law and contractual matters, handled as they arose.
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— Regulatory framework work for Somalia's national electricity regulator — solar standards, donor partnership agreements
— Before co-founding Insaaf, a partner served as senior legal advisor to the Kismayo Port Authority — governance, leases, concessions, opinions
— Before co-founding Insaaf, a partner led Somalia's PPP-framework rapid assessment — institutions, law and regulation, with reform recommendations
FROM SOMALIA LAW BLOG
Before you negotiate a Somalia concession, ask who can grant the right →
The federal question, concession literacy and enforcement architecture — by the practice lead

Building here?

Bring the term sheet before it hardens. The questions that decide Somali projects are cheapest at the start.
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