Startups and Bitcoins in Morocco

Morocco regained its independence in March 1956 when it became the Kingdom. The modernization reform of early 2000th, initiated by Mohammed VI, was intended to bring the local political system closer to the European standards of the constitutional monarchy.

After October 2016 elections the lower chamber of Morocco Parliament 325-members Majlis an-Nuwwâb (The Assembly of Representatives of Morocco) is dominated by the government coalition headed by the 50-years-old, right-wing, nationalist Justice and Development Party or PJD, which holds to 125 seats. The largest opposition party - the monarchist Parti authenticité et modernité or PI (The Authenticity and Modernity Party) - has 102 deputies. Since 1975 the Western Saharan has been one of the most contentious issues of Morocco internal and external political debates.

Without taking into account the impact of oil industry on GDP, Morocco has the second largest economy in Africa (after the Egypt) with expanding tourism, agriculture, mining, construction, textile and telecoms sectors. Additionally, Morocco is one of the main world's centers of the cannabis production. Still, due to a large and growing population Morocco's per capita remains very low.

Moroccan startup ecosystem is negatively affected by gradually slowing economy, very high unemployment rate, low income consumers, high administrative and legal barriers as well as a deficit of seed and VC financing. At the same time, the growing number of young, urban users of mobile Internet provide local tech founders with multiple business opportunities in different sectors.

On November 2017 Foreign Exchange Office of Morocco (Office des Changes) and Bank Al-Maghrib published a statement, promising to penalize anyone transacting with foreign countries without going through authorized government intermediaries or in foreign currencies not listed by Bank Al-Maghrib. That effectively makes trading cryptocurrencies and organizing ICOs illegal in Morocco.

Business Notes for Startups Founders:

political climate: not friendly;
economic climate: marginally friendly;
regions to focus: locally;
industries to focus: e-services, entertainments;
major limitations: gradually slowing economy (GDP growth rate has fallen from around 8% in 2008 to under 5% in 2017), youth unemployment rate about 20% (general rate about 10%), low income population (per-capita about $3000);
stimulus: large population of about 34 million inhabitants, service sector accounts for more than 50% of the GDP, growing tourist industry, fixed Internet penetration rate above 60%;
opportunities: to create an e-business aimed at the growing number of young, urban users of mobile Internet in sectors of e-services and FinTech;
Cryptocurrencies and ICOs (outlook): not legal (negative).
The author: Svyatoslav (Svet) Sedov

Angel investor and founder of The First International Incubator for Silicon Valley Companies (FirstInternational.In) in the Bay Area, CA, USA.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SvjatoslavSedof