Along a 100‑metre stretch of Mandera’s main street, elderly traders sit outside small shops offering to exchange Kenyan shillings, Ethiopian birr and US dollars to passing customers.

The market serves the heavy flow of people who cross the River Dawa each day, moving between Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia to buy and sell goods.

Ethiopian visitors typically bring birr to purchase Kenyan food items, but must first convert the birr into shillings because most Kenyan merchants price goods in the local currency.

Kenyan traders travelling to Ethiopia use the same strip to swap shillings for birr before crossing into Suftu, the Ethiopian border town.

Somali nationals often exchange US dollars for shillings at the market, enabling them to buy Kenyan goods, while many also use Somalia’s EVC mobile‑money platform for transfers.

Mobile‑money services link the three economies: traders process payments through Kenya’s M‑Pesa, Ethiopia’s e‑Birr and Somalia’s EVC, allowing customers to send money to relatives across borders.

Traders say the bulk of their volume involves Ethiopian birr, reflecting the large flow of goods from Ethiopia into Mandera, while Somali‑linked transactions remain a steady part of daily business.

The exchange hub contributes to Mandera’s economy by generating income for traders and by facilitating cross‑border commerce that would otherwise be hampered by currency mismatches.