Morocco Launches Self-Employment Scheme to Tackle Informal Economy

This scheme offers, through entrepreneurship, a simple registration process. It is without administrative burdens to create a traditional company. In this context, it is a three-step process, which leads to obtaining the self-entrepreneur card. In five years of activity, the national entrepreneurship scheme, which aims to promote the entrepreneurial spirit and make the creation of SMEs a lever to generate employment and value, has more than 230,000 registrations as of the end of June 2020.

The reduction of taxation, the exemption from bookkeeping, as well as the possibilities of invoicing and carrying out the activity at home, are all advantages that are driving this scheme forward. The eligible categories and activities for registration are also multiple (industry, commerce, crafts, services...). Obtaining the self-entrepreneur card makes it possible to come out of the shadows. "I can showcase and show my creations without problems in exhibitions throughout Morocco," says Zahia S, a fashion designer.

The president of the Union of Self-Entrepreneurs praised the relevance of this status which gives the possibility to "start in the formal sector with the greatest simplicity". He also finds it essential to diversify the financing solutions allocated to this category well beyond the traditional channels. Similarly, the urgent implementation of crowdfunding involving socially-oriented projects in view of the significant weight of social self-entrepreneurs must be cited.

It should be noted that access to financing was at the heart of the integrated financing and business support program "Intelaka". Thus, among the categories in difficulty, self-entrepreneurs are eligible for the advantageous offers of the program which provides loans of up to 1.2 million dirhams with an interest rate set at 2% and 1.75% for the rural environment. Similarly, institutional support for this category continues with a special guarantee mechanism for bank loans in favor of self-entrepreneurs in the amount of 15,000 dirhams at a zero interest rate, despite the health crisis.

For the record, with an ecosystem of public and private partners, self-entrepreneurship has given a real impetus to the entrepreneurial dynamic in Morocco, as a simple legal status. Thus, it will continue its mission which consists in ensuring a more flexible integration into the formal sector, notes La Map.