Armo a town in Puntland is booming because of Oil exploration...

[General Duke]

Until now, the tiny desert town of Armo in Somalia’s northern Bari province was little more than a truck stop between the major regional hubs of Qardho and Bosaso. And the only thing keeping the town relevant was the Armo Military and Police Academy that served both regional and national security training purposes.

 

 

The town, which lies a mere 28km from the Dharoor valley basin, is now experiencing the first benefits of oil exploration in Somalia. It can be said in Bari today that you can experience the benefits of oil there without so much as even sniffing the substance. Roads are being improved, and some even built from scratch to serve the growing demand of emerging investors. Hotels are popping up left and right across the town’s main highway to serve contractors. And real estate is booming for families looking to settle permanently in the area.

 

The biggest benefit has been to the value of the local currency. The Somali shilling went from exchanging at rates of 32,000 to the dollar to now 23,000 to the dollar–among the strongest rates ever experienced by the Somali shilling. This is entirely due to the influx of foreign contractors creating a demand for local goods and raising the value of items.

 

Locals are rightfully optimistic about exploration and expressed a desire to see Somalia, or at least their hometown, get out of poverty. This surge of optimism and confidence has led to less reliance on foreign aid, and outright rejection of it in favor of propping up local enterprise and natural growth.

 

Regional leaders have strongly reiterated that the prospective wealth of Puntland is not going to stay in one pocket of the country, but that it will work to lift the entire nation out of poverty on equal terms. It is a sentiment that the ordinary people of Armo and Puntland in general share.

[General Duke]

Armo or Carmo is one of the places I would like to visit one day insha Allah.

[Somalia]

It sounds great the furthest North I am going this summer will be Qardho inshallah, I heard these areas get very hot.

[Che -Guevara]

Nice...small towns tend to be swollen by bigger population centers.

[General Duke]

Armo is quite cool compared to Bossaso and it's growing fast.

[Che -Guevara]

I wonder how hot is it?

[General Duke]

It's hot but not hotter than parts of Arizona or New Mexico.