Moroccan diagnostics company Gigalab is preparing to expand across Africa, betting on manufacturing capabilities it has built at home to meet the needs of health systems across the continent. In a special Forbes Africa edition dedicated to the Kingdom, founder and CEO Karim Zaher laid out a strategy combining local production with continental expansion, positioning Morocco as a manufacturing base for medical diagnostics serving the wider region.
Founded in 2007, Gigalab initially distributed laboratory solutions at a time when some medical samples collected in Morocco had to be sent to France for analysis, with turnaround times of up to two weeks. The company gradually shifted toward local manufacturing, a transition accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, during which it developed an at-home saliva test to meet surging demand for screening.
Gigalab’s product range has since broadened considerably. The company now manufactures rapid tests for HIV, hepatitis, malaria, mpox and syphilis, and is working alongside Morocco’s Ministry of Health and Social Protection on a new generation of devices, including multiplex tests capable of detecting several pathogens from a single sample.
The company’s continental ambitions are underpinned by a May agreement with the Mohammed VI Foundation for Sciences and Health, covering the integration of Morocco-made rapid tests into patient care pathways. Gigalab already supplies solutions to Niger and Benin and is developing partnerships in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Cameroon, extending its footprint well beyond Morocco’s borders.
Zaher frames the strategy around a broader argument: that Africa’s health needs should increasingly be met by industrial capacity built on the continent itself, rather than relying primarily on imports. Gigalab’s approach now rests on two closely linked pillars, deepening local manufacturing capacity while steadily extending its presence across African markets.
