New factory employs hundreds in Mogadishu

A new Coca-Cola soft drink factory was inaugurated in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Monday, marking the largest investment in the strife-torn country since the collapse of the central government in 1991.

Somali investors had put US $8.3 million into the setting up of the production line, which had already employed 150 people. At least 70 other people had found work with distributors, Abdirazzaq Ise, the chairman and chief executive of the United Bottling Company told IRIN by telephone from Mogadishu. The factory was currently producing 36,000 bottles of soft drinks per hour, he added.

"It is a 100 percent Somali investment," said Ise. He said he did not have any major security concerns, saying the investment had the "goodwill of the people". "This is our country; We have to create confidence in our country," said Ise.

Ise said the company, which had a franchise agreement with the US-based Coca-Cola multi-national, would expand and that it would in the near future be able to supply the entire country, which relied on imported products, with soft drinks.

The old Coca-Cola factory in Mogadishu was destroyed in the factional warfare that took root in Somalia following the overthrow of the regime of Muhammad Siyad Barre in 1991. Other Somali entrepreneurs have invested in mobile telephone companies, internet cafes and radio stations despite the insecurity.