al-Barakat or al-Barakaat (Arabic: البركات‎), which means "Blessings" in Arabic, is a group of companies established in Somalia in 1986. Al-Barakat has involved itself in the modern form of hawala, an informal value transfer system, and the remittance trade. By 2001, it was operating in 40 countries and was the country's largest private employer.^{[citation needed]} Al-Barakat handled about $140 million USD a year from the Somali diaspora, and also offered phone and internet services.^{[citation needed]}

Al-Barakat first began operations in 1986, before the outbreak of the Somali civil war in 1991. It rose to prominence when hawala became the only way to transfer funds to Somalia, and remittances had become the lifeline of some of the nation's inhabitants. With no officially recognized private banking system, the remittance trade in Somalia came to be dominated by a single firm, al-Barakat.^{[citation needed]}