Moroccan financial technology takes off
The Fintech Times magazine, dedicated to exploring companies with significant potential in financial technology, has just published a report in which it points to Morocco as an important new market in this sector. According to the document, the Alawi country is "a market to watch". This is because the Kingdom is starting to innovate and is beginning to become an early-stage Fintech hub. Forecasts suggest that, in the near future, the Maghreb nation is set to experience significant growth in this industry.
The magazine is very surprised by the size of Morocco, as it is not typical for a small country to start a start-up in this sector. Even so, the industry is starting to take its first steps and the report assures that the Maghreb kingdom is going to be a big dynamic market in this aspect.
The Kingdom currently has only 20 fintech companies, which is why it is so surprising that this market is starting to make big profits. With a great development, it is expected to reach great expectations that will place Morocco as one of the most important economies developing this kind of scenario. Moreover, Moroccan law does not prohibit or hinder the creation of financial technology companies, as there are no specific regulations in place right now.
Fintech promises to be a big market in the North African country, not to mention the fact that Morocco has no startups that have raised more than $1 billion before going directly to the stock exchange. But the report makes it clear that, at this early stage, the nation promises to secure a good path in this sector. The Fintech Times highlights that this is possible due to a number of reasons, including its small demographics, high literacy levels and that, in addition, the Kingdom has a large banking sector that can be dedicated to further developing this technology sector.
The report also notes that a number of banks in the country could realise the growth of this sector in Morocco. "Despite its small size, the country has two of Africa's largest banks, Groupe Banque Populaire (BP) and Attijariwafa." The Fintech Times states that, with the support of these two entities to companies, the financial technology sector would have an important boost and with good financing, innovative projects would be produced for the economic market. This is because the more conventional financial institutions are beginning to realise that technology is the future, and to stay ahead in the market and remain competitive, they are turning to these new terms.
In addition, the report mentions an institution that has proven to be an example to follow for this nascent market. BP launched in 2018 the first edition of the Fintech Challenge and Open Innovation programme, demonstrating Morocco's opportunities to rise in this sector. This project of the bank aims to support African startups through partnerships and funding so that they can follow the path of financial technology and boost themselves even further.
For companies that want to enter this Fintech world, they need to be aware of the advantages that technology can provide in their favour. Firstly, these brands would obtain savings in their expenses due to the fact that technologies allow for faster processing and, therefore, improve business efficiency.
Secondly, technology allows companies to store data much more easily and flexibly, as well as giving them the power to carry out transactions over the network, making everything much easier. Following on from this, technology allows companies and their finances to be transparent in the way they are managed and presented to the public.
And finally, technology allows firms to become more efficient. Thanks to automation, more concrete services are available than if you are not involved in this sector. Therefore, it allows you to offer clients quicker and much higher quality responses than if the technologies were not incorporated into your systems.
