Moroccan-African relations: what type of relationships?

Since its independence, Morocco considered itself as a part of Africa, and thus played a major
role on the African scene as a whole. Throughout the year, Morocco gave more and more
importance to its relations with other African countries.
This importance can be seen in the countless visits of Moroccos king, Mohammed VI, to
African countries. As his travels had an African vocation, new dimensions took place into the
relationship between Morocco and the continent through the South-South cooperation and
human development.
In this big picture, we can see three steps of the Moroccans evolution with the African
countries:
1. The involvement of Moroccos public enterprises in different projects to developed the
infrastructure, communications, resources managements
2. The involvement of Moroccos private enterprises in the service sector (Banking,
mining, human resources management)
3. A true economical strategy, which can be seen in the regional integration within
African countries, whether they are economic, political, or even monetary.
As such, Morocco already took some steps towards the African countries, such as eliminating
the debt of some poor countries and offering help to these countries, and the to-come
agreement with the UEMOA and the COMESSA but also with the CEDEAO and the
CEMAC.

Commercial relations
To this date, Morocco has commercial and investment agreements with other African
countries. Moreover, the next figures will help illustrate the weight of these agreements:
Moroccan-African commercial exchanges:
The exports of Morocco towards other countries rose by 16% in average in the last 13 years,
before 2014. The parts of foreign trade with African countries went up to 16.3 billion dirhams
in 2013, which is 8.8% of Moroccos total exports.
Moroccan exports to African countries:
The biggest part of these exports goes to alimentation for up to 28% in 2013, followed by
demi-products (23%), finished products for the industry (17%), consumable products (16%)
and energy products (12%).
Moroccan imports from Africa:
Imports rose by 12% in average, going up to 19.8 billion dirhams in 2013, which represents
5.2% from total imports of Morocco in 2013. The structure shows that Morocco imports
mostly energy products from other African countries (Such as oil) for up to 60% from total
imports.

Moroccans foreign trade by regional structure:

However, we note that most of Moroccans exchanges are with the North African countries
(60% in 2013), mostly Algeria (35%) for its exports of carburant.
Moroccans foreign trade with African countries (as a percentage of global foreign trade)
Moroccans exports to African countries went to 11.7 billion dirhams in 2013 against 2.2
billion dirhams in 2003, which is an evolution of 18% in average. Moroccos part went from
2.7% in 2003 to 6.3% in 2013 from the global trade. However, imports established at an
average 3.6 billion dirhams. They represent 0.7% in 2013 against 1.8% in 2003.

Factors penalizing exchanges

According to the IMF, trade policies in Africa are a major drag down to trades, as there are
relatively protectionist. The state control over the economy is dominant in Africa.
The tariffs to foreign trade are amongst the biggest in any continent (up to 20% in average),
which restricts foreign trade of countries.
Other non-tariff measures are taken by African countries, such as imports certificates, quality
controls and sometimes discrimination in imports that are considered a major restraint to the
quality of the trades and their consistency.
There are also structural problems, related to the infrastructure and the transport of
merchandise, that are not installed throughout the African country, and make the trade more
costly for enterprises.
However, these problems are being discussed, and some major initiatives to create direct
routes, and to renovate the infrastructure, are being put over the table for some future
understandings.

Some African opportunities

There are 3 remarks concerning the opportunities in Africa:

First, the sales of agriculture products did not exceed 1.5% of the total exports.
Most of the African countries purchases of textile come from China, India and
France. Morocco only represents 0.2% of these importations.
As for chemical products, Moroccan exports only represent 0.8% of the global
imports.

Thus, the African market may be bearer for Moroccan exporters if they adopt a strategy for
adapting to the import demand of the region. However, given the level of purchasing power of
African consumers, the Moroccan companies targeting the African market should favor a
penetration strategy based on cost considerations (cost leadership) that would allow the use of
mass production low or medium quality, particularly in terms of the textile industry.
Beyond goods and services, Morocco aims to sell its expertise in electrification, access to
drinking water, construction of dams, road and rail infrastructure, telecommunications and
new technologies. It is therefore a model of economic development that our country proposes

to export on the African continent. It has for it three advantages: geographical proximity,
proven expertise and competitive cost
In terms of academic cooperation, Morocco has tripled in the last five years the number of
foreign students on its soil to 7,500 students of which 68 % is made up of Africans from forty
countries of the continent. It should be noted that in 2008, over 85% of these African students
received a grant from the Kingdom, according to Agence Marocaine International
Cooperation (AMCI).

Investment compartment
Evolution of the influx of direct investments

Moroccan investment in Africa are invested in direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa,

representing 85 % of total outward FDI flows to the continent and 51 % of total Moroccan
FDI abroad between 2003 and 2013. The Moroccan IDE in the area fluctuate from year to
year but their share is still high in total, representing up to 88% of outward FDI flows in 2010.
Geographical structure of Moroccans FDI to Africa, accrued from 2003 to 2013

The evolution of flows by host countries shows that the main FDI flows have been made in
2006, 2009 and 2010, mainly in Burkina Faso, Mali and in the telecommunications sector.

Moroccan banks have emerged as heavyweights in sub-Saharan Africa with a direct presence
in nine countries in the region, after some timid actions during 1990s. BMCE Bank,
Banque Centrale Populaire and Attijariwafa Bank are the most notable banks in this
compartment, as they are present throughout more than 15 African countries.
In telecommunications, Maroc Telecom integrated Mauritania through the Compagnie
Mauritanienne de Communications, Burkinafaso through natel, and Gabon through
Gabon Telecom.
In the area of services, ONE has obtained a concession in Senegal for 25 years for the
Electrification of the departments of St. Louis, Dagana and Podor. The Board proceeded to
the creation of a subsidiary of the registered capital of 28 million MAD designated "ONE
Senegal" in 2008. In Cameroon, the group holding ONEP- delta and CDG-INGEMA
proceeded to the creation of the Cameroon Eaux (CDE) for leasing of drinking water in the
country for 10 years. The company has a capital of 105 million dirhams of which 33.33%
owned by ONEP.
In air transport, RAM was able to expand its service network in Africa, from six in 2003 to 22
destinations in 2010 and 30 in 2014. These 30 destinations are also linked to 45 others outside
Africa making Morocco an air hub between Africa and the rest of the world and the first
African transport platform between Africa and Europe. With 1 million passengers a year, the
African market represents 23% of the turnover of the company.
Overall, Morocco is being more and more integrated with African countries, and the desire of
Morocco to install an equilibrium with these countries can be seen. This growing interest is
justified both by the need to provide alternative markets Moroccan investors , which would
serve as a base to cope with the intensity of competition in the traditional markets , as the
effective participation of the Moroccan capital in department projects launched in Africa
whose benefits could only be beneficial for trade .
According to the UN, morocco distinguished itself by its interventions in:

Policy: As a member of several regional and sub-regional, Morocco has continued to

defend the interests of the least developed countries;
Economic: Morocco is positioned as market strength, being the second African
investor in Africa and the first African investor in West Africa;
Technical: In terms of technical cooperation , Morocco, through the Moroccan Agency
for International Cooperation ( AMCI ) , was able to stand out with its support for the
training of African professionals , sharing of advanced expertise and technical
assistance and the realization of infrastructure projects in the priority sectors ;
Humanitarian: For the maintenance of peace, Morocco has always assisted the most
affected populations. As such, Morocco can legitimately play a leading role in the
triangular cooperation.