On the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, held in Washington from April 20 to 24, Nadia Fetta, the Minister of Economy and Finance, held a meeting with the Managing Director of the IMF. Virtual participation of Wali of Bank al-Maghrib, Abdeltif Johri. Opportunity for BAM’s Wali to call on the Bretton Woods Institute to support the implementation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy to bridge the economic and social divide for women, youth and VSEs whose categories of actors are suffering.

A Moroccan delegation led by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Nadia Fattah, had intensive activities in Washington on the sidelines of the work of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings.

Held from 20-24 April, the Conclave hosted several important meetings, including the WBG-IMF Joint Development Committee meeting and the Africa Advisory Group meetings with WBG President David Malpass and IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva.

As chair of the group of countries within the Development Committee, in addition to Morocco, Afghanistan, Algeria, Ghana, Iran, Pakistan and Tunisia, Nadia Feta underscored the importance of “using digitization to promote strong and inclusive growth”. did. , on the one hand, and ‘elsewhere’, to implement immediate collective action to address the emerging debt crisis in developing countries.

Meeting the challenges of over-indebtedness and food insecurity

During the meetings of the African Advisory Group with the Managing Director of the IMF and the President of the WBG, held under their chairmanship on April 21 and 22, 2022 respectively, Nadia Fetta, Chair of the African Caucus for the Year 2022, emphasized. On the challenges faced by most countries on the continent, in particular, over-indebtedness, food insecurity, fragility and adaptation to climate change, which have increased with the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis and its impact on prices, energy and food products.

In this regard, the Minister of Economy and Finance welcomed the initiative of the Bretton Woods Institutions to help vulnerable low- and middle-income countries meet these challenges, while giving these two institutions their reference position, ” Re- Examining the current global financial architecture to adapt it to the specific development financing needs of African countries. On the sidelines of the event, the Minister of Economy and Finance held a meeting with the Director General of the IMF, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) ), participated in the virtual mode of Abdeltif Johri’s Wali.

During this meeting, Nadia Fattah expressed the Moroccan government’s desire to continue the momentum of reforms initiated by the Kingdom, in accordance with the King’s high guidelines, in particular the Program for the Normalization of Social Security, the Economic Reform Plan and Reforms. shed light on. of public establishments and enterprise sector.

The minister also welcomed the initiatives taken by the IMF under the leadership of Kristalina Georgieva to better meet the financial needs of developing countries, the statement said.

Economic and Social Integration of VSE
Abundant in this direction, the Wali of Bank al-Maghrib began by welcoming the IMF’s efforts, before dwelling on the National Financial Inclusion Strategy “as a vehicle for economic integration, particularly for women, youth and many more.” Targeting small businesses.

Indeed, Morocco wants to accelerate the implementation of its National Financial Inclusion Strategy where significant progress has been made, but also where women, youth, rural people and VSEs.

Indeed, women, youth and rural people are the most affected population by financial exclusion due to economic and cultural factors. But, also because of his low level of financial education. Development of alternative offerings such as payment accounts, micro savings and micro insurance, which are more accessible to the excluded population, will promote their financial inclusion.

VSEs, micro enterprises and auto-entrepreneurs are also bad banks. Only 48% of them have a bank account and 6% use bank credit. Three main constraints are detrimental to their banking: their low activity rate (45%), their low financing needs (41%) and their lack of confidence in the banking sector.

We should work on three levers to encourage them to use bank financing: the cost of credit, the amount of installments and the flexibility to be offered in the event of payment difficulties.

Aziz Diouf / ECO Inspirations