The Impact of Micro Finance Institutions on Economic Growth of Morocco

Abstract

The Moroccan banking system is characterized by great diversity and is largely modeled on the French banking system. It includes banks and other institutions working in specialized areas such as, agriculture. At the end of 2011, the banking sector comprised eighty five institutions, with the Bank Al Maghrib (BAM) as its central state institution. This system includes nineteen banks, thirty five finance companies, six offshore banks, thirteen Micro Finance Institutions and twelve other institutions. The total number of banks has not changed since 2009, whereas the number of finance companies has declined. In contrast, the area of microcredit was reinforced. After several years of growth, the microfinance sector in Morocco began to experience some problems in 2008. The crisis in Morocco started with the crash of one of the largest MFIs and jeopardized the whole system. Reasons given for the crisis were mainly the unsustainable growth of the sector, but also the high market concentration of MFIs, multiple indebtedness, the lack of controls and monitoring systems, nonperforming loans and delinquency problems. The microfinance market is very concentrated, and clients are mainly allocated among the four biggest MFIs accounting for over 90% of client outreach. From 2003 the amount of active clients rose from almost 308,000 clients to 1,353,000 clients in 2007.