Abdirashid Ibrahim Sh. Abdirahman has been in the public service for the last six years. He is currently the Director General of the Ministry of Trade and Tourism, the former Director-General of the Ministry of Planning and National Development, and the former Director-General of the Ministry of Employment, Social Affairs, and Family of the Republic of Somaliland.

Mr. Abdirashid comes from an academic background and has spent the better part of the past fifteen years working in higher education, specifically in the areas of teaching, educational leadership, development, university external relations, technological modernization of educational institutions, and introducing internationally recognised certifications like Cisco, ACCA, and TOEFL to students in the country.

As for Mr. Abdirashid’s education, he has a Master of International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Hargeisa, a Master of Education from the University of Nairobi, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Educational Management and Administration from the Islamic University in Uganda, a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Hargeisa, an Advanced Diploma in Strategic Management from Copenhagen Business School, a Leading Transformations: Manage Change certificate from Macquarie University, Certifications from Cisco Networking Academy and advanced Diploma of Information Technology from the African Virtual University and New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA.

During the drafting of the Republic of Somaliland’s constitution, Mr. Abdirashid worked as a clerk. He was helping the various constitutional drafting committees to digitize their drafts. Former Somaliland House of Representatives Speaker, Ahmed Mohamed Aden (Qaybe), MP Prof Maxamed Barkhad Miiggane (Xamaal), current Somaliland Speaker Prof. Yasin Haji Mohamoud Xiir “Faraton”, and the late Ibrahim Khaliili, the foreign affairs minister of Sudan who was advising President Egal on constitutional matters, were among the members he assisted.

As Chairman of Inspire Group, together with his inspiring IG team, he successfully organised the first ever presidential debate in Somaliland, which was a watershed moment for democracy in the Horn of Africa. By hosting its first-ever broadcast presidential debate on October 19, 2017, Somaliland not only achieved a democratic milestone but also set a favourable example for other nations in the region.