NAIROBI (Reuters) - About a year ago, Muqtar Ali's brother was shot dead by gunmen in the busy Bakara market of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, and his $200 in cash was stolen.

Ali says that if a new mobile money transfer service unveiled by Somalia's biggest mobile telecoms firm last month had been in place then, his brother would still be alive.

Telecoms firm Safaricom pioneered mobile money transfers in neighboring Kenya and now has 8 million users. Besides transferring cash to friends and relatives, people pay power bills and even receive dividends from some companies.

Hormuud Telecom, the biggest network in Somalia with more than a million subscribers, says it designed the software for its SAAD money transfer service, but was helped by Safaricom workshops and consultants.