Morocco’s efforts to lead Africa’s digitalization process received a boost with a new loan from the World Bank. The loan, which is the second of its kind from the global lender to Morocco in one week, will be deployed to support Morocco’s plan to boost digital inclusion reforms. According to the Bank, the loan is part of the Financial and Digital Inclusion Development Policy Financing Project (DPF) to support mechanisms to promote digital transformation in Morocco.
The program seeks to enhance financial inclusion and “access to more competitive digital infrastructure and services for business and individuals.”The World Bank lauded the “rapid” digital transition initiative during COVID-19, emphasizing that the pandemic has exacerbated the need for digitalization. The COVID-19 crisis urged the world to adopt alternative plans as private and public institutions shut their doors to avoid COVID-19 infections in working environments.
Like other countries, some of Morocco’s digitalization plans have seen light amid the crisis, including remote education, work, and judicial processes. During the crisis, “Morocco’s digital transition accelerated rapidly, showing the country’s capacity for a greater scale-up,” said World Bank Maghreb Country Director Jesko Hentschel who noted that the digitalization offers new opportunities for Morocco, ranging from “more fluid economic transactions to better services to citizens and businesses.”
The World Bank program seeks to help businesses expand their projects, stressed lead financial sector specialist and task team leader Djibrilla Issa who is senior economist and co-task team leader, also stressed the importance of the program, which will allow Moroccan startups to “import digital services that are not available in Morocco.” The digital services aim to enhance the startups’ products and services and increase competitiveness, Al Kadi added.
The new loan is the second of its kind from the World Bank to Morocco in one week. On June 16, the World Bank issued a press release to announce the approval of a $54.27 million loan to help Morocco tackle the COVID-19 crisis. The World Bank has also expressed its satisfaction with Morocco’s “effective approach” to curbing the spread of the pandemic.
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“Today, more than three months after the start of the crisis, Morocco has one of the lowest fatality rates (the number of deaths compared to the total number of infections) in the world (less than 2.6%), while 90% of cases are cured,” said the international institution. Despite the importance of the loans in consolidating Morocco’s COVID-19 response, the country may suffer the effects of increased external debts.
The country has received multiple loans from international banking institutions during the pandemic.The Ministry of Economy shared a report at the end of 2019 that showed Morocco’s external debt reached MAD 334.96 billion ($34.366 million) by the third quarter of 2019. The report showed Morocco’s external debt totaled nearly $36 billion in 2017. National debt reached more than $35 billion in the second quarter of 2019 and decreased slightly to $34.366 million by the third quarter. Morocco has faced heavy external debt over the past six years, and given the current economic and health crises, the trend is bound to continue in 2020.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry