COUNTRY FOCUS: MOROCCO
likelihood of scale among locally developed companies.
Utilisation and locally developed content has not yet been
maximised as the majority of Moroccans are still adapting to
using technology for more than just checking basic email and
making phone calls.
There is an opportunity for further development in content
creation in Morocco to boost web presence and content
tailored for domestic and regional consumption. Morocco
could also take strides to serve as a continental leader in ICT
through knowledge sharing and support of other African
markets. There is an opportunity for Morocco to do more
to share knowledge beyond north Africa while offering its
companies access to new customers beyond its borders.
Morocco’s ICT industry
In Morocco, the Government has created two different
public bodies along with an ICT federation to facilitate
development, research and legislature in the sector.
The Moroccan Telecommunications Regulatory Agency
is in charge of granting telecommunication licences,
implementing ICT framework and supporting development
and research in the sector. Although not solely created for the
ICT sector, the Ministry of Finances and Privatisation plays a
large role in the ICT sector by preparing tax and finance law
to aid the ICT sector as well as to create value added services
in the field of eGovernment.
The local ICT sector in Morocco is largely concentrated in the
outsourcing BPO, advisory, and infrastructure space though
there is a concentration of content and solutions developers.
A few hundred technology and BPO focused companies are
operating from technology complexes in Casablanca and
Rabat, and additional complexes around the country are in
“Analytic technologies are
clearly gaining traction
amongst IDC surveyed
organisations.”
development stages. In Morocco, domestically developed
ICT companies benefit from high penetration of technology,
and strong public-private sector alignment on technology.
While Morocco certainly faces its share of challenges on the
technology front, there is an opportunity for Morocco to
leapfrog to become an international ICT leader with support
from external organisations.
The success of Moroccan ICT companies has hinged on the
Moroccan government’s dedication to expanding the ICT
industry via various initiatives: launching incubators such as
the Casablanca Technopark and Ifram University to host ICT
companies and creating free trade zones with tax breaks and
legal guarantees to encourage ICT development.
This demand has led to a high quality of phone and Internet
service at affordable prices with Internet penetration nearing
50%, mobile penetration eclipsing 100%, and the average
cost of broadband ranging from $15 to $30 per month.
Further, the Moroccan government’s action to reduce trade
restrictions for IT equipment has helped to lower prices for
enterprise grade networking hardware and retail devices.
To become a global hub, Morocco cannot sequester itself from
continental exposure; it must open knowledge and economic
pathways into sub-Saharan Africa and the world. One way
to do this is by hosting international ICT symposiums and
engagements. The country also needs to focus on becoming
a research and development destination and unlock some of
the value hidden in its universities. To achieve this, the country
should borrow best practices from countries like Israel, which
was able to boost its research capabilities in part by loosening
constraints on the commercialisation of technology developed
in universities, by offering professors a greater share of any
realised profits.
Some of the barriers to the growth of the ICT industry include
limited exposure across sub-Saharan Africa, lack of commercial
research and development, lack of exposure of top technology
talent to non-Africa innovation hubs, and limited utilisation of
technology by broad population beyond basic services.
Mobile and enterprise trends
Africa’s mobile phone market started 2017 off with a
drastic quarter-on-quarter decline according to IDC. The
prime driver of this downturn was a stark –17.6% decline in
the smartphone segment. When viewed year-on-year, the
overall mobile market was up 8.4%, primarily due to feature
phone shipments. Feature phones have now been rising as
a proportion of the total market for more than a year, which
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