First Independent Mena Newspaper
Morocco’s textile and clothing sector demonstrates measured resilience amid intensifying global competition, maintaining its eighth position among EU sourcing destinations with 7% growth in 2025. However, structural challenges reveal the urgent need for strategic transformation toward higher value-added production. Latest data from Eurostat and Morocco’s Foreign Exchange Office show the kingdom’s textile exports to the […]
International research firm BMI, a Fitch Solutions subsidiary, has revised Morocco’s 2025 economic growth forecast downward to 4.8%, from a previous estimate of 5%. The adjustment reflects cautious optimism amid an uncertain agricultural recovery and mixed signals in public and private investment. The revision follows Morocco’s High Commission for Planning data showing real GDP growth […]
Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has firmly established itself as the dominant airline in North Africa, significantly outpacing the Algerian airlines, Air Algérie. With a clear growth strategy, robust international partnerships, and a strong financial foundation, RAM is not only expanding its footprint but also reinforcing Morocco’s influence across the African continent. In 2024, RAM operated […]
From July 9 to 11, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump is hosting a high-level Africa summit in Washington, with just five invited countries: Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal. The decision to limit participation reflects a strategic realignment in U.S. foreign policy toward Africa, emphasizing commercial diplomacy and targeted partnerships. According to U.S. officials, the […]
Algeria’s economic foundations are showing serious cracks, including an unsustainable fiscal system, rigid economic structure, dependence on oil and mounting external vulnerabilities, the IMF warned in a new report. The budget deficit expanded to 13.9% of GDP in 2024, one of the highest in the region, the IMF said, noting that this sharp deterioration stems […]
Morocco’s tourism sector is experiencing unprecedented growth and is expected to surpass the milestone of 20 million tourist arrivals this year, tourism minister Fatima Zahra Ammor said. With 7.2 million visitors recorded during the first five months of 2025, a 22% increase compared to the same period last year, the performance of the tourism sector […]
The Senegalese government has officially ditched a land deal with American-Senegalese singer Akon, effectively halting his ambitious plan to build a futuristic, cryptocurrency-powered city dubbed “Akon City.” The project, first announced in 2018, promised a $6 billion “real-life Wakanda”, a high-tech utopia powered by renewable energy and using Akon’s own digital currency, AKoin. The city […]
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said it is working with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Nigeria’s EbonyLife Media to study the feasibility of launching a pan-African investment vehicle targeting the continent’s film sector. The initiative aims to unlock fresh private and institutional capital to help African producers create and distribute stories for global audiences, […]
Morocco has signed a major defense agreement with U.S. aerospace company L3Harris to modernize its fleet of C-130 Hercules transport aircraft. The deal, signed on July 3, marks a significant step in the Royal Moroccan Air Force’s (FRA) strategy to extend the operational life of its C-130H aircraft while preparing for the eventual acquisition of […]
Ecuador inaugurated on Friday an Embassy in Rabat, its first diplomatic mission in the Maghreb region, at a ceremony attended by Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, and her Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita. During the inauguration ceremony, Sommerfeld stated that the opening of the embassy marks the beginning of a new era of dynamism in Morocco-Ecuador […]