Bihi Iman Egeh (, ) is a Somali politician serving as the current Minister of Finance of the Federal Government of Somalia since July 2023. Under his leadership, Somalia qualified for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative completion point on 13 December 2023.
Bihi hails from Hargeisa and is currently serving his second term as a member of the Federal Parliament of Somalia, having first won this seat in the 2016 election.
Education
Bihi holds a Master of Studies in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Oxford, where he studied at St Antony’s College in 2018. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in global studies and international relations from New Generation University College in Addis Ababa.
Political career
Bihi was first elected to the House of the People in December 2016 and retained his seat in November 2021. The African Development Bank's biographical note says that he served as secretary of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.
While he was Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, the ministry, the International Labour Organization, the Federation of Somali Trade Unions and the Somali Chamber of Commerce and Industry agreed to implement Somalia's first Decent Work Country Programme in June 2023. Bihi represented the government at the signing.
Bihi was appointed minister of finance in July 2023, succeeding Elmi Mohamud Nur. That December, Somalia reached the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. The IMF and World Bank estimated the resulting debt-service savings at US$4.5 billion; they described the debt-relief process as an effort spanning three administrations. As finance minister, Bihi chairs Somalia's National Anti-Money Laundering Committee.
References