Rabat – This week, Morocco celebrated its 60-year partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which has so far mobilized more than $3.5 billion for local projects and businesses.
Since 1962, the IFC has worked with over 100 Moroccan small businesses, manufacturers, agribusinesses, and financial institutions to support the country’s development plans including its New Development Model that aims to support public-private partnerships for inclusive socioeconomic growth.
To commemorate the financial institute’s long-standing relation with Morocco, IFC Vice President for Africa Sergio Pimenta visited the country earlier this week. He held meetings with Minister of Economy and Finance Nadia Fettah Alaoui, Minister for Energy Transition Leila Banalia, and Governor of the Central Bank Abdellatif Jouahri.
Speaking on the role of the IFC in advancing the development of Morocco’s private sector, Pimenta said his institute is “proud to be a strong and trusted partner of the Kingdom of Morocco, helping build the private sector into a powerful engine of economic and social development.”
The official further noted the IFC’s plans to “continue working with partners in Morocco to create more impact and opportunity.”
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Welcoming Pimenta’s statements, Minister Alaoui said that “IFC has supported Morocco’s national and regional vision of becoming a regional hub in Africa.”
She added that the global financial institution “has been a reliable and diligent partner, close to not only the realities on the ground in Morocco but also in sync with the strategy, philosophy and ambition of the Kingdom.”
As the Morocco-IFC partnership reached a new milestone this week, the Washington-based institution is set to focus on supporting private sector reforms, sustainable and regional development, and expansion of Moroccan businesses into Africa.
Over the past three years, the IFC has invested more than $733 million in Moroccan businesses in the manufacturing, infrastructure, and financial sector to boost job creation and economic growth to overcome the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The latest investments add to more distinguished partnerships, such as the expansion of Morocco’s first development bank, the National Bank for Economic Development, in 1963 and the creation of the world’s first public-private partnership in the water sector in 2005.
