The facility « Investing for Employment » GmbH contributes to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic and to preserve jobs in Morocco.
The facility « Investing for Employment » GmbH (IFE) allocates a grant of €6.68m (72.92m Dirhams) to Morocco to sustain jobs in the private sector, which are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This grant is provided within the framework of Invest for Jobs, and aims to set up a subsidy programme to support direct and indirect employment. It will benefit companies working with the programmes “Emergence Invest” and “Innov Invest”, especially innovative start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over a period of 6 months. These subsidies will help mitigate the impact caused by the pandemic for this category of companies.
The Caisse Centrale de Garantie (CCG) has been appointed as the financial institution and partner in charge of implementing this grant measures.
Two grant mechanisms are planned for the targeted companies: a grant to support salary payments of institutions that promote start-ups and innovative companies (incubators, accelerators etc.) on the one hand, and a grant to stabilize wages for SMEs which work within the portfolio of private equity companies and the framework of the initiatives: “Innov Invest”, “Emergence” and “Damane capital risque”.
This grant contributes to sustain more than 1,100 direct jobs in the private sector. It enhances the existing measures and mechanisms (garantie COVID, Innov Invest technical assistance) put in place by the Moroccan State in order to anticipate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To this end, a grant agreement has been signed on 8 December 2020 in the headquarters of the Caisse Centrale de Garantie, in the presence of Mr. Hicham Serghini, Managing Director of CCG, and Mr. Markus Faschina, Director of the KfW office in Rabat.
IFE is an investment mechanism for employment and part of the Special Initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition" of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It aims to create good jobs and apprenticeships and to improve working conditions in its partner countries in Africa. IFE provides competitive grants to co-finance public or private projects in its partner countries in Africa, including Morocco.