At the opening of this event, the Minister emphasized the
High Royal Guidelines concerning Morocco’s new development model which, in its
economic dimension, should be able to generate more economic and social
inclusion and achieve higher jobs and wealth creation.
While stresseing the important achievements and progress made
by Morocco regarding economic development, as can be seen by the renewed
confidence of its partners and international investors, Mr. BENCHAABOUN also
recalled the many challenges our country faces in terms of competitiveness,
attractiveness and growth.
The Minister reasserted the commitment and the mobilization
of the Government of His Majesty the King to create an efficient economic
dynamic. He also pointed out that a set of measures to boost investment and
improve access to finance for micro-enterprises and SMEs will be adopted pursuant
to the Finance Act for the year 2019.
Those measures include : the increase in the ceiling of
the credits granted by the Microcredit Associations (AMC), thus increasing from
50.000 to 150.000 DH. Therefore, in order to enhance the attractiveness of this
step, especially as regards reducing the interest rate of micro-credit, the
Minister stated that the CCG will set up funding lines for AMCs, combined to
the resources of these associations to grant formalized micro-enterprises loans
on easy terms
In addition, the Minister stated the simplification of the CCG's
guarantee offer, which will be improved, consolidated and simplified in the
interests of MSMEs. Thus, the new guarantee offer makes it possible to tackle
two major financing problems facing SMEs, namely investment and the requirements
for working capital.
With a view to accompany the development of SMEs, the CCG
will double its guarantee ceilings for industrial and export companies as well
as those active in the field of clean energy. Provided that the beneficiary
companies, he specified, have effective governance.
As part of the measures to boost investment, the Minister noted
that the focus will be to address the problem of undercapitalization of
industrial and exporting SMEs through the implementation of a financing
solution of the CCG through a subordinated loan on favorable terms.
Mr. BENCHAABOUN welcomed the performance of the CCG in
recent years, stating that the extension of the CCG's main areas of operation and
the review of its product range indicate a major change in its activity.
For this reason, he encouraged all the CCG's partners
(banks, finance companies, associations, labelled players and investment funds)
to increase efforts to boost the financing of businesses and startups. He added
that companies must, on the other hand, take advantage of these opportunities
and become more involved in productive investment and in competitive
modernization and innovation.
Invited to present the items on the agenda, Mr. Hicham
ZANATI SERGHINI, Director General of the CCG, made a presentation on the outcomes
of the year 2018. He stressed the positive trend achieved. He presented the performance
of the global activity which generated nearly 26.6 billion DH of guaranteed and
granted loans, an annual increase of 10%.
Mr. SERGHINI also specified that during this period, the activity
in favor of MSME continued to grow, reaching a total of 20.5 billion DH of
guaranteed credits, that is an increase of 15% compared to the year 2017, for
nearly 10. 800 funding proposals.
He also drew attention to the achievements in the first year
of the activity of the offer for innovation planned under the Inno Invest Fund.
This device allowed to finance 59 startups, for a total of 41 million DH.
On its side, the activity devoted to individuals knew the
same levels of activity as the previous year, involving a guaranteed credit budget
of more than 5 billion DH, for more than 22,000 beneficiaries.
Subsequently, the Board, which welcomed these positive
developments, approved the production targets for the financial year 2019, the
institution's budget for that year and the configuration of the new product range.