C.Bank Endeavoring To Cut Cost of Remittances By Moroccan Expats

Abdeltatif Jouahri, Governor of Morocco’s central bank (Bank Al-Maghrib), announced Thursday in Rabat that his institution is working with the banking sector to slash the cost of remittances by Moroccan expatriates, while diversifying the transfer channels.
This came in a forum, held in the presence of Foreign Minister of Togo Robert Dussey and his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita, on reducing the cost of remittances for African expatriates.
Jouahri said that Morocco decided back in 2009 to remove the exclusivity clause linking international money transfer operators to their counterparts in Morocco. The measure led to significantly reducing the transfer expenses.
He added that Moroccan Banks exist in 27 African countries and have branches in 7 European countries as well as 50 representation offices across the world, stating that a solid banking system based on a cross-border presence was established in support of the Moroccan diaspora.
The Moroccan expatriates’ transfer receipts witnessed a considerable jump of 37% in 2021 and 13% in 2022, totaling 8% of the Gross Domestic Product, he said.
According to Jouahri, the central bank is taking initiatives in digitizing financial services to make money transfer costless, faster, and safer.
The total transfer by 150 million African expatriates over 2010-2020 amounted to more than $610 billion in the MENA region (1.7% of GDP) and $440 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa (2.4% of GDP). However, only 10% of remittances are invested in projects.