(ERGO) – When Bahjo Abdirisaq Warsame, 24, graduated with a degree in Public Health at East Africa University, she hoped to find a good job that would rescue her pastoralist family from the poverty they had descended into after losing their livelihood to drought.
However, since 2023 she has failed to find employment in Puntland’s civil service, the state’s biggest formal employer. She has applied for posts in other fields too and even tried for manual work, but everything has failed.
Bahjo’s family came to Garowe from the rural areas hoping to find a better life. Their entire herd of 200 goats and 60 camels all died off in 2022 in Nugal region due to prolonged drought and disease.
She faced immense stress covering her education expenses in her final year after their livestock died. She had to appeal to relatives and friends for financial help several times to avoid being expelled from the university.
Now they are struggling to afford even one meal a day and rely on irregular assistance from relatives. None of her eight-member family is working. Some nights they go to sleep hungry.
“My family’s situation is difficult,” she said. “They can’t find anything to eat. I haven’t found work despite my education, which poses an enormous challenge.”
Bahjo, the eldest child and first in her family to receive an education, said they had high hopes that she would get a good job and lift them out of poverty.
“It has had a major impact on me, a person who was educated and expected to help herself and her family, but is now unemployed. I am genuinely facing a major life obstacle. But we hope that change will come and that jobs will be created for educated youth,” she told Radio Ergo.
In January, they were evicted from their rented house after failing to pay the $100 rent for three months. Relatives collected money for them and they returned to their house in February. But again they have fallen into rent arrears and face eviction.
She is concerned about two of her younger brothers, who were prevented from attending primary and secondary school due to financial hardship. They also owe $300 to shops where they took food on credit.
Bahjo tried to start her own business, but failed three times to get a loan or investment from private banks, which required collateral or fixed assets that the family can’t provide.
Similar disappointment has faced recent graduate Jamal Mohamed Iise, who completed a degree in Administration and Management at Puntland State University in 2024.
He said he has submitted nearly a hundred job applications to government ministries, organisations and private companies, but hasn’t received any offers.
“It has created a big burden for those of us who have graduated from universities and spent a lot of time studying, and are now sitting at home. Many people, especially my immediate family, looked up to me and relied on me, wanting me to support them and my younger siblings since they spent a lot of effort educating me,” Jamal said.
Jamal’s mother, who raised him alone, paid for his studies by selling vegetables from her stall in Garowe’s Inji market.
His hope after graduating had been to find a job that would enable him to open a shop for his mother, freeing her from standing under the sun all day at her stall. The whole 12-member family relies on his mother’s stall, which at best earns her $2 a day.
Jamal still pounds the streets visiting offices asking about vacancies. But he feels caught in a vicious circle.
“We can’t get jobs from NGOs because of strict conditions and the requirement for significant experience to have worked for several years. Private companies also have limited and narrow opportunities. I aspired to work for the government, but the government has stopped hiring. So, we are not giving up, but it is an obstacle that we haven’t found work,” Jamal told Radio Ergo.
In April, in desperation, he was tempted to join an overseas migration journey with 10 of his university friends, but he decided not to join them.
He is worried about his mother’s chronic ill health, and his three siblings who are out of school this year as they can’t pay the fees.
The Puntland administration stopped hiring new employees in May 2024 due to a halt in budgetary support from the World Bank, which had long funded government services and job creation.
According to Hassan Ahmed Mohamud, head of Kaafi organisation that works to improve workforce quality in both government and private sectors, the lack of a transparent recruitment system has caused the unemployment problem.
“There are many jobs in the country, but paradoxically, educated people remain unemployed. I have seen long queues of people seeking jobs through other means. If you apply through the correct channels, you won’t find a job,” he stated.
A study in 2023 by Daily Somalia, a Puntland youth organisation, showed that 70% of high school and university graduates failed to get jobs.
