High-rise, high expectations: is Casablanca’s finance hub a model for African development?

Over the past decade, Moroccan investment across Africa has sharply risen: from $100m in 2014 to $2.8bn in 2024. It was approved by the African Union in 2012 and launched seven years later, but implementation has been slow. “In this context of trade wars, the African free trade area is really a must,” she said after the session. There is also regular criticism of Morocco’s constitutional monarchy system, but supporters say this has projected an image of calm that seems to have benefited Casablanca, compared with other African hubs. It also hosts the Africa50 fund, a vehicle launched in 2015 by the African Development Bank, with initial capital of $700m from 20 member states, to spur infrastructure development across the continent.