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Morocco Secures $500 M Green-Jobs Boost from World Bank
<p>The World Bank has unlocked a first-of-three $500 million policy loan for Morocco aimed at slashing youth unemployment, turbo-charging SMEs and accelerating investment in clean energy, energy-efficiency and export-oriented pharma. The programme is expected to generate 330 000 job matches by 2029 and almost seven-fold pharmaceutical exports while adding 40 000 childcare places to boost female labour participation.</p>
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Record finance package targets Morocco’s twin challenges: jobs and climate resilience
Rabat has secured a landmark $500 million Development Policy Loan from the World Bank, the first tranche of a programmatic trilogy designed to reshape Morocco’s labour market, energise 1.1 million micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises and position the kingdom as a regional hub for green industry and pharmaceutical exports.
Employment at the centre
- 330 000 jobseekers are expected to be matched with vacancies by 2029 through upgraded labour-market interventions.
- 40 000 new licensed childcare slots will be rolled out, enabling an estimated 1 200 direct new jobs for women in the care sector and encouraging higher female labour-force participation.
- Vocational training and university curricula will be aligned with private-sector demand, with particular emphasis on digital, green and industrial pharmacy skills.
SMEs and investment climate reboot
Funds will back an overhaul of insolvency law to help viable companies survive temporary cash-flow shocks, expand credit-guarantee schemes for riskier SMEs and streamline procedures at Morocco’s one-stop Regional Investment Centres. Taken together, these measures are projected to lift private investment by cutting compliance time and cost.
Green and pharma growth engines
The loan supports Morocco’s ambition to add 4 GW of renewable capacity and scale up energy-service companies (ESCOs) that retrofit buildings and factories. It also underwrites a major push into high-value pharmaceutical ingredients and finished generics, with export revenues targeted to surge from 1.2 billion USD today to roughly 8 billion USD by 2029.
Macro pay-off
Officials estimate the reforms could add 0.7 percentage points to annual GDP growth over the medium term and cut the unemployment rate for 15-24-year-olds from 24% to below 18%. By replacing fossil-fuel subsidies with performance-based incentives for clean-power generation, the programme is also expected to trim the treasury’s energy-import bill by at least 200 million USD per year.
Disbursement of the remaining two operations, each also worth around 500 million USD, is conditional on achieving pre-set milestones in employment, enterprise creation and carbon-emission reductions. If benchmarks are met, the full 1.5 billion USD envelope would rank among the largest policy-based financings ever granted by the World Bank to a middle-income country.