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Rabat – After six and a half weeks of activity, the “Damane Oxygene” program has already benefited 13,200 companies in Morocco. Eighty-five percent of the companies are very small: Their turnover does not exceed MAD 10 million ($ 1 million). Under the program, the Central Guarantee fund has issued a total of MAD 7.3 billion ($730 million) to eligible companies to date.
Morocco’s Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Administration Reform launched Damane Oxygene on March 26 to protect businesses from bankruptcy in the face of the global health crisis. The Central Guarantee Fund (CCG) is the Moroccan credit institution responsible for executing the program’s finances, at the instruction of the country’s Economic Monitoring Committee (CVE). The government launched the CVE in March, at the onset of Morocco’s outbreak, to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on the country’s economy.
The measures authorized under Damane Oxygene include covering a large part of the companies’ loans, covering up to three months’ of companies’ operating expenses, or covering periodic interest payments for enterprises and individuals. The program targets the most vulnerable businesses, namely micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
Hicham Zanati Serghini, the managing director of CCG, expressed pride over the implementation of Damane Oxygene: “Like any new product, and especially because of the health situation, the implementation of Damane Oxygene required adjustments. [The adjustments] were dealt with in record time by the various parties involved. That said, we are currently at cruising speed,” the director told Finances News Hebdo (FNH).
Serghini spoke of the CCG’s changing role as it plays an increasingly important part in guaranteeing credits. The director assured that CCG is working with all stakeholders to find an optimal way to ensure the successful revival of the companies’ activity.
A revival of Intelaka, a program launched on February 3 to facilitate access to finance for MSMEs, may support this transition to “normal.” Although the program was “decelerated” due to the outbreak of a global pandemic, Serghini envisions its revival “in earnest” at the end of the crisis.
