Covid-19: AfDB Grants €118 Mln in Additional Funding to Morocco

The African Development Bank (ADB) approved, Tuesday, to grant nearly €118 million in additional funding to the support program to improve social protection implemented in Morocco (PAAPS-FA Covid-19).

This funding, which aims to strengthen Morocco’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, is an extension of the € 183 million support program to improve social protection (PAAPS), approved in late 2019, the AfDB announced in a statement Wednesday.

In order to mitigate the effects of the health crisis and allow a rapid and effective care of patients, the program will support the upgrading of health infrastructure in Morocco and further strengthen their intervention capacity.

It will also help ensure continuity of quality care offered by the country’s specialized units. In the long term, the aim is to strengthen the resilience of the Kingdom’s health system.

“We are doing our utmost to help Morocco meet this unprecedented challenge,” said Mohamed El Azizi, the Bank’s Managing Director for North Africa.

“Our priority is to support the Kingdom’s health response to this pandemic. This effort will continue, in the long term, to strengthen the resilience of the country’s health system to new crises,” he added.

The support program will enable to increase the intensive care bed capacity to 1,350, with 666 additional units. It will also provide Morocco with sufficient screening tests and a supply of pharmaceutical products and devices. Furthermore, 78 hospital emergency rooms will be upgraded.

“With more beds, respirators, screening tests and upgraded emergency services, this project will help further improve patient care,” said Leila Farah Mokaddem, AfDB Country Manager for Morocco.

Partnership between Morocco and the AfDB, which goes back to more than half a century, covers different strategic sectors, including energy, transport, water and sanitation, agriculture and social development.