No extra bonus points are possible. Bonus points are highly unlikely. Indian Ocean thassalocracies it will have to be.
I see 2 periods where the POD is most possible:
1. during the classical era before Roman maritime intervention became a factor. A time of thriving Somalian city states that engaged in a thriving trade between Ptolemic Egypt, Phoenicia and the Parthians. Make one of the cities become dominant and also improve their boatbuilding tech ---the surrounding cultures had better ships suited for long distance sailing.
2. The Adal Sultanate of Northern Somalia in the medieval period. If it can ward off Abyssinian expansion without engaging in an existential conflict to the death, as well as ethnic based civil war, then, under the patronage of the Ottomans, they were in a good position to be big players in the Indian Ocean trading network.