Morocco’s diaspora has entered the CGEM room. Now it needs a seat in the economic strategy

The forum’s promise was to turn priorities into action. For Moroccans abroad, that is precisely where the test begins.

More than 1,000 registered business leaders, entrepreneurs and institutional representatives gathered in Casablanca on 17 October to discuss investment, competitiveness, artificial intelligence, SME finance, exports and regional development. The General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises also placed a conversation titled “Diaspora: a bridge to the world” inside the part of the programme devoted to new markets.

The description is accurate. A Moroccan founder based in Paris, Brussels, Montreal, London, Dubai or New York operates across at least two business systems. Diaspora entrepreneurs understand foreign customers, investor standards, emerging technologies and market-entry rules that many Moroccan SMEs still struggle to navigate. They may bring capital, but their value cannot be reduced to a bank transfer.

The question is whether the forum marked the beginning of a structured policy—or whether the diaspora will remain an honoured guest given one panel before the main programme resumes.

Morocco counts remittances better than entrepreneurial impact

Moroccans abroad transferred MAD 122.023 billion in 2025, according to the Foreign Exchange Office, a 2.6% annual increase. By the end of August 2026, transfers had already reached MAD 89.215 billion, up 9% year on year.

These flows support households, consumption, savings and Morocco’s external accounts. They also cushion the economy during crises. Yet they do not tell policymakers how many companies MRE founders have created, how many jobs those firms support or how much diaspora capital is entering industry, AI, renewable energy and exportable services.

The latest detailed national baseline was published by the High Commission for Planning in 2022 using a 2018‑2019 migration survey. It estimated that just 2.9% of Moroccans abroad in the survey invested in Morocco. That figure is not a 2026 snapshot and should not be presented as one. It does, however, expose a structural gap: Morocco measures the money sent by its diaspora far more precisely than it measures the businesses, expertise and commercial networks the diaspora helps build.

Four routes from global experience to Moroccan value

Moulay Hafid Elalamy, the forum’s headline speaker, offers a historic example. He studied at the Université de Sherbrooke, worked in Quebec’s finance ministry and insurance sector, and returned to Morocco in 1988. He later founded Saham, chaired the CGEM and served as industry minister. His trajectory shows how knowledge acquired abroad can be reinvested in a Moroccan company and, eventually, in national industrial policy.

Youssef Chraïbi represents a different circulation of skills and markets. After HEC Paris, he began his entrepreneurial career in French technology and founded Outsourcia in 2003. The group expanded through Morocco and other markets in business-process outsourcing. In 2024, Chraïbi said it employed close to 4,000 people, roughly half of them in Morocco. The diaspora link here connects overseas clients, Moroccan jobs and service exports.

Asmaa Chakir Alaoui co-founded Paris-based VelyVelo with Jamil El Garti and Othman Razine. The company develops electric bikes and fleet-management tools for professional delivery. A partnership with ORA and Bringo aims to deploy cleaner last-mile logistics in Morocco; one of the partners publicly projected 35 new jobs. The larger point is technology and business-model transfer: experience tested in a European market is being adapted to Moroccan urban needs.

Karim Amor was born in Europe, partly raised in the United States and moved to Morocco at 27. After building several businesses, he turned to deep tech and health-focused AI through Epineon.ai. As head of MeM by CGEM, he also helped create MFounders, a diaspora-led angel network intended to provide Moroccan startups with funding and mentorship. His contribution is therefore not one firm alone, but an infrastructure that can help produce others.

These examples are not a national dataset. They do prove that the mechanism already exists: global skills, international networks, entrepreneurial risk and value creation in Morocco.

Useful pilots must become national infrastructure

The CGEM has built several tools. MeM by CGEM—its “13th region”—connects Moroccan entrepreneurs and high-potential professionals abroad with the domestic economy. A mentoring platform has been developed with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. On 15 October, CGEM and Belgium’s Enabel also announced “Maghrib Belgium Mentoring”: €500,000 in Belgian funding to support 100 entrepreneurs and project holders in Morocco’s Oriental region through Moroccan mentors based in Belgium. Women are expected to represent up to 40% of beneficiaries and at least 30% of mentors.

This is tangible. It is also small in relation to the challenge: 100 entrepreneurs, one Moroccan region and one diaspora country. The next step is to turn the pilot into national infrastructure while preserving its most valuable features—individual follow-up, sector knowledge and measurable outcomes.

The wrong response would be another layer of portals. An MRE founder needs an accountable case officer, reliable regulatory guidance, a binding response time, access to finance and a local execution network.

Five choices for government and business

First, diaspora participation should be built into every publicly supported entrepreneurship programme, from regional investment centres and Tamwilcom to university incubators and CGEM initiatives.

Second, Morocco needs a voluntary, secure skills map organised by sector, country and type of engagement: investing, exporting, mentoring, researching or joining a board.

Third, a diaspora co-investment facility should match qualified private commitments with guarantees, debt or equity, prioritising productive, export-oriented and job-creating projects rather than defaulting to property.

Fourth, MRE entrepreneurs should sit on incubation juries, innovation-hub boards and regional investment committees. Treating them only as beneficiaries discards half of their value.

Fifth, public reporting must track diaspora-founded businesses, survival rates, jobs, patents, exports and regional distribution. Without a dashboard, “mobilisation” remains indistinguishable from communication.

The CGEM forum took an important step by placing the diaspora inside a conversation about competitiveness, AI and international markets rather than confining it to remittances. The next step is methodological.

Morocco does not need to persuade its diaspora that it belongs. It needs to prove that its expertise will influence decisions, its investment will be protected and its time will be respected.

The diaspora is not merely a bridge to the world. It is already part of Morocco’s economic world. The Kingdom’s development programmes should now be designed accordingly.