Morocco and AfDB: €405 million for railways and training

Morocco and the African Development Bank signed, Thursday in Rabat, two financing agreements with a total value of 405 million euros, dedicated to modernizing railway infrastructure and enhancing the vocational training of young people. The two agreements were signed by the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance in charge of the budget, Fawzi Lajja, and the official of the African Development Bank in Morocco, Ashraf Tarsim, during a ceremony also attended by the Minister of Economic Inclusion, Microenterprise, Employment and Competencies, Younes Skouri, and the Director General of the National Railway Office The first tranche of funding, amounting to 205 million euros, goes to the financing of the project to support the development of rail infrastructure, which aims to enhance the capacity and performance of the railway axis linking Quneitra and Marrakech by expanding the high-speed line and strengthening the railway infrastructure based on this strategic axis. The project is expected to contribute to improving the mobility of travelers between the Kingdom's major economic and urban poles, and enhancing competitiveness The second installment, amounting to 200 million euros, will be directed to finance the "Cap 2030 Competencies" program, which aims to enhance the quality and diversification of vocational training offers, by digitizing services, widely deploying training mechanisms and improving the access of young people and women to the labor market. The first part of this program aspires to support training programs for 260,000 young people without certificates, while the second part focuses on promoting the professional integration of this group by accreditation On the National Agency for the Recovery of Employment and Competencies, through supplementary training programs, including the "Rehabilitation" program. An extended partnership since 1978, Fawzi Lajja considered that the two projects serve the priority of employment and make young people a lever for value creation, while Ashraf described the demarcation of the expansion of the high-speed line as a "structural project" that translates a common desire to prepare the Morocco of tomorrow, stressing that the Kingdom constitutes a "reference" for Africa. For his part, Younis Skouri stressed the importance of this support over the next five years to accelerate the "Cap Kafa 'at" program 2030". This financing comes within the framework of a partnership that extends since 1978, during which the African Development Bank mobilized more than 15 billion euros to finance more than 150 projects in Morocco in the sectors of human development, water, agriculture, energy and transport infrastructure.