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The bridge into Africa | Zawya
How Morocco has positioned itself as a global financial hub and gateway to Africa:
The Casablanca Finance City (CFC) was first established through a directive of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI in 2010, making it a relatively young but fast growing gateway into African markets. Through aggressive business development and key partnerships with financial centres across the world–including Mauritius, Paris, Singapore, London, Luxembourg and Montreal–the City now boasts just over 100 companies operating under its umbrella.
Sitting on 100 hectares in the new Casablanca-Anfa city centre, the City now hosts several international banks, insurance companies and advisory groups–but has ambitions for much more. Najwa El Iraki, Head of Business Development, sat down with Banker Africa’s Isla Macfarlane at the Africa Financial Services Investment Conference to discuss.
What makes Casablanca Finance City a hub for the African region?
Looking at Morocco’s assets, they basically represent the key success factors for building an internationally recognised financial centre. First, there are several strategic advantages–this includes ongoing political stability and Morocco’s strategic geographical position between Africa, the Arab world, Europe and the Americas. We also have world-class infrastructure, which includes the largest airport in the West Africa region–we have 33 air connections from Casablanca into other African cities, we are the number one air hub between Europe and Africa…We also have world-class highways, ports, speed rails and networks, making Morocco’s infrastructure stand out compared to the rest of the continent…[FULL STORY]