Casablanca Finance City (CFC) won its position as Africa’s leading financial centre, surpassing Kigali and Johannesburg in the Global Financial Centres Index ranking, writes Le Figaro.
Established in July 2010, Casablanca Finance City is a public limited company born from a public-private partnership aimed at positioning Casablanca as a regional financial center in Africa.
Casablanca Finance City (CFC), often nicknamed the “Wall Street of Morocco”, is quickly becoming a gateway for entrepreneurs and multinationals seeking to establish themselves in Africa, according to an article published on Tuesday by the French daily Le Figaro.
The CFC is a dynamic hub in the heart of Casablanca. Its modern infrastructure and skyscrapers have attracted startups, multinationals, banks, insurers and funds investment. The CFC today hosts 225 companies operating in 115 countries, including 50 in Africa.
In December, the city hosted 1,200 industry leaders at the Fifth African Finance Summit (AFIS).
With Africa poised to become a key driver of the global economic growth, Casablanca positions itself as a pole top-notch business. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that by 2025, 70% of African households will benefit from a purchasing power of more than $5,000 per year. This trend has strengthened the attractiveness of CFC to companies wishing to access the continent’s rising middle class.
Political support played an important role in the CFC’s growth. The speech by King Mohammed VI in Abidjan in 2014 during a forum on economic and the reintegration of Morocco into the African Union in 2017 has boosted the country’s efforts to deepen its economic ties with the continent.
According to the Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Moroccan investments in Africa have increased from 100 million dollars in 2014 to more than $800 million in 2021. Currently, 43% of Morocco’s foreign direct investment (FDI) target African countries.
MK/ac/Sf/fss/gik/APA