Morocco: this is why I believe that Entrepreneurs are the new saviors

By Hamza el Mounhi

Morocco World News

Ahmedabad, India, February 10, 2013

I have the feeling that as a nation, we rely too much on government. Each time there is a problem, someone dying somewhere, a village with no schools or hospitals, we automatically blame the government. To a certain extent, I think that we are right: as long as we respect our duties, we need our rights to be fulfilled.

It turns out, however, that blaming has not proven its efficiency. Nearly 60 years of blaming and criticizing people in charge led only to a small improvement comparing to peer nations. We have to remember that as a country, our resources are very limited and our problems are increasing. The government alone cannot achieve full development. Not to forget our long lasting curse: crocodiles (aka corrupted politicians). The crocodile is the most difficult animal to tame.

Nevertheless, we should always keep in mind this golden rule: every time the state is failing to achieve something (no matter for which reason), there is a scope for innovation. The only thing we need is “entrepreneurs”. All initiatives and ideas presented in my articles so far did not entail any kind of government intervention; everything was developed by inspired individuals.

Unfortunately, Entrepreneurs are a very scarce resource in Morocco. We are rich of business men: people who know how to make money (Morocco malls and Real estate speculation). It is a great thing to aspire for wealth, but it would far greater if our actions had long lasting benefits on society as a whole.

An entrepreneur is someone who is willing to drive change, break the status quo and bring new ideas to the ground, ideas that will change radically life of millions. Look at the amazing example of microfinance, no government was able to think of this extraordinary tool to alleviate poverty. We had to wait until a bunch of “innovative minds” decided to take this movement forward.

All across the planet, this new trend is emerging. Some call it “social entrepreneurship”, but I prefer to use the word “innovative” to qualify this type of individuals. The new initiatives are now covering progressively the empty space left by the state. As of now, many projects are being developed in the sectors of education, healthcare, banking, insurance etc. I will present some examples in my next articles.

Entrepreneurs are flexible, mobile and know how to make money anywhere. Their projects have to be financially sustainable. Therefore, they need to deliver a decent quality service or products. The doors are open for competition, hence the quality increases and costs are brought down. As in the case of Microfinance or the solar power presented in my previous article, entrepreneurs come up with small scale local solutions for global problems. Unlike the state, their solution are tested at a small level and if they prove to be successful, they change the lives of millions. On the other hand, the state deploys huge amounts of resources for development programs, some of them do not even reach half of their objectives.

It is the reason why I believe that we should be able to drive the state out of areas where it has proven its inefficiency. By doing this, we will not only reduce its burden, but we will make a big step toward alleviating corruption from our public systems. The channels of corruption that are related to the state involvement in those areas would be simply cut off as money would stop flowing in. This vision might seem utopist as of now, but the trend is there. It just needs some “laissez-faire”.

A final year student at HEC Paris, Hamza El Mounhi is now completing his education in India at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad. He is very interested in development issues, focusing mainly on education, healthcare and social entrepreneurship. In his articles, he will bring to us India’s successful innovations in these fields and see to which extent they can present a solution to Morocco’s challenges. He is also a blogger and has been active member of several associations and NGOs. He writes also in French and has his own blog (http://indiaandmorocco.wordpress.com/). He is part of Morocco World News editorial team. Email: [email protected]