First Independent Mena Newspaper
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced on Tuesday a €145 million financing facility to Moroccan Bank of Africa (BMCE Group) to support the country’s coronavirus response. This is the first investment to be delivered under the EBRD’s coronavirus Resilience Framework that was set up to meet the immediate short-term liquidity and working […]
Morocco’s leading telecom operator said it will donate its first quarter profit amounting to 1.5 billion dirhams (150 million US dollars) to the special fund created to mitigate the social and economic consequences of Covid-19. The government has pledged 10 billion dirhams to the fund which included a fine of 3.3 billion dirhams that Maroc […]
The Moroccan government has asked all ministerial departments to prepare a list of spending cuts that will target non-essential activities in first austerity measures to deal with the economic impact of the novel coronavirus. The disruptions in the national economy due to Coronavirus notably the suspension of tourism activity, fewer remittances of Moroccan expatriates, and […]
The International Monetary Fund on Monday announced a plan to provide immediate debt relief to 25 member countries, including 19 African states to allow them to focus more on the coronavirus pandemic. According to the IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, the Washington-based institution approved the first batch of countries to receive grants, under its Catastrophe […]
State fund CDG said that the losses due to coronavirus could amount to $5.4 billion (54 billion dirhams) with Morocco expecting a recession in 2020. The study was based on the hypothesis of a four-month-long crisis and a gradual resumption of activity by July 2020. It expects agricultural production to contract by 6% with only […]
Morocco will invest $1 million in scientific research in areas related to the management of pandemic crises, with focus in the short term on the Coronavirus pandemic. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research announced the adoption of a support program for multidisciplinary scientific research in areas related to pandemic crises, for which a […]
Doctors, nurses and other medical staff who treat coronavirus patients will be paid for the risk they are exposed to, a health ministry source told Moroccan media. The ministry has confirmed to different health system unions that they will pay the family of the doctor who lost her life due to a coronavirus infection as […]
The EBRD, together with the European Union (EU), is stepping up efforts to support small and medium-sized enterprises managed and owned by businesswomen in Morocco, amidst the coronavirus pandemic, considering that women entrepreneurs are expected to be disproportionately affected by the crisis as their firms tend to be concentrated in certain sectors. The EBRD is […]
The African Development Bank Group has announced the creation of the COVID-19 Response Facility to assist regional member countries in fighting the pandemic. The Facility is the latest measure taken by the Bank to respond to the pandemic and will be the institution’s primary channel for its efforts to address the crisis. It provides up […]
The World Bank has warned that the rapidlyspreading coronavirus outbreak is expected to push sub-Saharan Africa into recession in 2020 for the first time in 25 years. The International lender’s Africa’s Pulse report released on Tuesday said the region’s economy will contract 2.1% to 5.1% from growth of 2.4% last year, and that the coronavirus […]