Morocco goes digital with 2030 strategy focused on innovation, growth, and services

Minister of Digital Transition, Ghita Mezzour, unveiled today Morocco’s 2030 Digital strategy that seeks to transform Morocco into a digital leader, driving economic growth, improving public services, and enhancing the quality of life for citizens. 

The event, attended by André Azoulay, the King’s advisor, along with several ministers, highlighted the strategy’s aim to “boost the digital economy, streamline and digitize services for sustainable development, and fully embrace digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence.”

Head of the government Aziz Akhannouch, in a virtual address, highlighted the government’s commitment to the strategy, which involved consultations with key stakeholders from across the digital sector, including public administration, professional associations, educational institutions, private sector, and civil society. 

He said  the strategy could potentially create job opportunities, especially for youth, revealing that the government is committing 11 billion MAD between 2024 and 2026. 

“We aim to train 100,000 young people annually in the digital field, up from 14,000 in 2022, and to create 240,000 jobs in the national digital sector,” he stated.

But he noted that success in job creation within the digital sector depends on the country’s ability to train a workforce with both the necessary quantity and quality of skills.

Key Pillars of the Strategy

The head of the government highlighted that the “Digital Morocco 2030” strategy is built on several key pillars, including expanding outsourcing and digital export services, strengthening the startup ecosystem with a legal framework that encourages international growth, and streamlining access to public contracts.” 

The plan also includes implementing suitable financing mechanisms to support startups throughout their lifecycle.

He revealed that “measures have been introduced to increase the number of digital graduates from Moroccan universities, with the goal of tripling the number by 2027.”

The government official noted that Morocco has also signed agreements with multinational companies specializing in digital innovation, research, and development to accelerate the country’s digital transformation and enhance local human capital.

With all these measures, Akhannouch stated that the government aims to position Morocco as the leading country in Africa for digital governance and rank it among the top 50 globally.

He outlined that the strategy plans to prioritize the digitalization of processes linked to government reforms in sectors, like health, social protection, investment, education, and employment. 

The Moroccan Agency for Digital Development (ADD) will play a central role in supporting the digitalization of public administrations according to the head of the government, while a unified digital portal will standardize administrative procedures across various stages.

He further mentioned that the strategy will focus on two additional drivers, namely “offering cloud computing services that respect national sovereignty and meet international standards for both public and private sectors, and improving internet coverage and connection quality, particularly in rural areas, with the planned introduction of 5G.”

Digital Economy and Innovation

Mezzour emphasized “the importance of this strategy, which aims to leverage technology to facilitate access for citizens, reduce wait times, and minimize the need for physical visits.”

Outlining the two main axes of the 2030 Digital Morocco national strategy, she highlighted the goals of “digitizing public services to better serve citizens and businesses, and boosting the digital economy by developing Moroccan tech solutions, creating value, and generating employment.”

“The strategy has an inclusive vision to ensure access for all Moroccans which are at the heart of the strategy,” emphasized the Minister of Digital Transition and Administration Reform.

She seized the moment to highlight the government initiative to digitize over 600 public services and administrative procedures, including 300 for citizens, more than 200 for businesses, and 100 for intergovernmental services. The aim, according to her, is to “guarantee the satisfaction of all Moroccans and accelerate the digitalization of Morocco.”

Overall, the strategy aims to create 240,000 direct jobs in the digital sector and contribute 100 billion MAD to the GDP. It promises to enhance the kingdom’s international competitiveness and foster a supportive environment for innovation and digital entrepreneurship.

The first axis, focused on the digitalization and simplification of public services, aims “to strengthen accessibility and improve service quality, particularly through the optimization of existing digital solutions.”

The strategy promises to apply international best practices to ensure the quality of the services provided and to offer specific support for priority projects, including both technical and financial assistance, as well as the provision of specialized experts.

It seeks to converge towards a unified, user-friendly portal that is expected to redirect to existing services and gradually integrate end-to-end digital services. The portal is “planned to provide inclusive and accessible digital services for all Moroccans.”

As for the digital economy, which the minister described as an essential lever of the strategy, it is structured around three major components—outsourcing and digital exports, startups, and business digitalization—with the utltimate aim to “propel the kingdom to new economic heights.”

In the outsourcing and digital export domain, the strategy envisions increasing export revenues from the Moroccan digital sector from 17.9 billion MAD in 2023 to 40 billion MAD, creating 140,000 new job opportunities and raising the total number of jobs from 130,000 in 2022 to 270,000 by the end of the decade.

The Kingdom also seeks to position itself in high-value-added sectors such as AI to distinguish itself on the international market.

In this regard, new initiatives, such as the employment bonus and the overhaul of the training bonus, will be implemented to support the development of specialized skills and create qualified jobs. Additionally, significant investments will be injected to develop infrastructure tailored to outsourcing and digital exports, particularly through the creation of nearshore parks in various regions.

Regarding startups, Morocco is committed to strengthening its ecosystem to develop digital solutions tailored to both national and international needs. The strategy aims to promote the emergence of 3,000 startups by 2030, with fundraising, which amounted to 260 million MAD in 2022, expected to reach 7 billion MAD by 2030.

To support the development of startups, the strategy stressed that national incubators are being strengthened, with efforts made to attract renowned international incubators. These structures will provide strategic, technical, and financial support to startups, thereby promoting their growth and enhancing their ability to penetrate international markets through partnerships and extensive networks.

Regarding company digitalization, a program was developed to support Moroccan tech SMEs in their expansion, with specific assistance planned to guide them through their digital transition. This includes assessing their level of digital maturity and providing financial subsidies intended to stimulate the adoption of digital solutions created by local players.

The strategy hence “aims to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of Moroccan companies on the international economic stage.”

The digital strategy is also based on three key catalysts, namely talents, cloud, and connectivity. 

Catalysts for Digital Transformation

The strategy aims to ensure the availability of digital talent in both quantity and quality, tailored to market needs, by leveraging all available production and attraction mechanisms.

The Digital Talents Initiative plans to deploy 100,000 talents per year by 2030, including the retraining of 50,000 individuals annually for digital professions and attracting 6,000 foreign talents each year.

Close collaboration with the public sector will be established to adapt training to market needs, with significant resources allocated to universities, among other measures.

Regarding cloud services, the strategy aims to establish a national service offering that meets the needs of both the public and private sectors, ensuring that Moroccan data remains on Moroccan territory and governed by Moroccan law, while also accelerating the digitalization of the public sector.

The strategy also aims to enhance the coverage and quality of connectivity for users. In this regard, the National Broadband Development Plan 2, scheduled for implementation by 2026, seeks to extend digital coverage to 1,800 currently underserved localities. 

The digital national strategy additionally includes the installation of fiber optic connections in 6,300 urban public administrative sites, as well as providing subsidies for equipping rural public sites with satellite connections.

It also mentioned that the development of national 4G roaming will ensure extensive coverage in localities served by universal services, with approximately 5.6 million households eligible for fiber optic connections by 2030, and aims to extend 5G coverage to 70% of the Moroccan population by the same year.

AI and Digital Innovation

The 2030 Digital Morocco also plan also aims to harness the potential of AI to enhance the efficiency of public services and support the local AI ecosystem to stimulate innovation and economic growth. 

In this regard, the integration of AI into innovative public services, along with other strategic measures, has been implemented.

 The strategy also envisions attracting international companies specializing in AI to strengthen the local technological landscape while encouraging existing companies to develop AI-based offerings, allowing them to provide high-value-added services.

Morocco has been making strides in its digital transition, ranking first in the Maghreb and eighth in the Arab world for e-government and mobile services maturity, according to ESCWA’s latest report. 

Additionally, Morocco was ranked 57th globally in the Huawei Technologies 2024 Digital Transformation Index, placing it first in North Africa.