Rabat – The National Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (Morocco PME) provided financial support for a total of 2,531 businesses in Morocco in 2021.
The data was announced during a board meeting of the agency held on Thursday.
Chaired by Morocco’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour, the meeting looked at Morocco PME’s activity report for the previous year.
In addition, the meeting was held to discuss the agency’s action plan for the ongoing year, according to an official statement reported in Morocco’s News Agency (MAP).
The statement specifies that the number of SMEs benefiting from the financial and technical support of the agency has grown exponentially over the past two years, going from 819 in 2020 to 2,531 in 2021.
Echoing the increase in the number of projects financed, the number of jobs created from the agency’s investments has increased by 15%, settling at 29,249 direct and indirect jobs, up from 25,357 in 2020, the statement indicates.
The positive data is the result of a new generation of programs the agency has launched, the statement points out, adding the Ministry of Industry and Trade has equally launched a number of projects to stimulate Morocco’s industrial sovereignty, the statement adds.
In recent years, Morocco has made significant strides toward stimulating the creation of a business-friendly climate for SMEs.
The Moroccan government made a strong case for supporting SMEs in the “New Development Model,” a body of recommendations Morocco adopted in 2021.
The plan notably argues that government support for SMEs is vital to generating jobs, bringing down unemployment, and guaranteeing equitable socio-economic development across all the country’s regions.
For all this robust official support, SMEs remain largely underbanked while access to funding for small companies need for growth remains largely restrained.
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