Rabat — Morocco’s Budget Minister Fouzi Lekjaa acknowledged on Monday that the country’s digital system for calculating social indicators contains significant technical problems that could wrongly exclude deserving families from government support.
Speaking to the House of Representatives, Lekjaa made a frank admission that the algorithm, which determines which households qualify for direct financial assistance, has flaws that need urgent fixes.
The minister revealed that everyday activities — such as repeatedly buying phone credit or subscribing to internet services — can artificially inflate a family’s social score and push them above the eligibility threshold.
“I agree with you that dozens of citizens may have topped up their phone credit and found themselves outside the threshold that allows them to benefit,” Lekjaa told lawmakers.
How the system works
Lekjaa provided rare details about the inner workings of Morocco’s Unified Social Registry, which the government uses to identify families eligible for social support programs.
The calculation method varies by location. In urban areas, the system evaluates 38 different variables to determine a household’s social score. In rural areas, officials use only 28 variables to account for different living patterns and regional characteristics.
The government sets the cutoff point at 9.74301. Any family that scores above this number is automatically excluded from direct support and may move into other categories, such as those required to pay health insurance contributions.
A work in progress
Lekjaa stressed that officials don’t view the system as finished. He called it an “open workshop” that requires continuous correction.
The government plans a comprehensive update to the scoring formulas immediately after officials integrate new data from the 2024 national population and housing census. Lekjaa said this update aims to address “exceptional cases” and ensure that simple behaviors don’t become misleading indicators that exclude poor families from their rightful support.
“Technological progress must serve integrity and justice,” the minister said, adding that the indicator should reflect families’ real living conditions.
Record numbers despite problems
Despite the criticism, Lekjaa presented statistics he described as “unprecedented” in Morocco’s history of social programs.
By the end of November, approximately 3.8 million households — about 42% of all Moroccan families — received benefits through the system. The program reaches 12.6 million citizens, with allocated funds exceeding MAD 27 billion ($2.92 billion).
The minister defended the shift from the old paper-based RAMED system, which relied on administrative procedures and human observations prone to error, to a digital platform built on data analysis. He called this transition a “quiet revolution” in managing social policies.
However, Lekjaa stressed that this change marks “not the end of the road” but rather a first step toward a system that officials can correct, measure, and improve.
