The World Bank announced that it would be awarding Morocco a $450 million loan through its Financial and Digital Inclusion Development Policy Financing (DPF) program. The loan aims to expand the availability of financial services and digital infrastructure for individuals and businesses, as well as improving financial inclusion and digital entrepreneurship. This is the second of three DPF loans the World Bank plans to give to Morocco.

Morocco plans to use the loan to continue to improve its digital infrastructure with the intent to provide better accessibility and boosting the financial resilience of households and SMEs.

One way that officials plan to accomplish this goal is through the expansion of digital ID access, to allow easier access to welfare and more efficient cash transfers within the country. This would give Moroccans living in rural areas unprecedented access to government assistance.

World Bank Maghreb Country Director Jesko Hentschel highlighted the need for improved financial and digital access, for Morocco’s most vulnerable, including women, youth, informal workers and smaller enterprises. “The COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected the most vulnerable, including women, youth, informal workers and smaller enterprises,” Hentschel said in a statement.

Furthermore, Onur Ozlu, a senior economist working with the World Bank to implement this program, has stated that the DPF loan will promote innovative financing solutions, such as crowdfunding, which could be a crucial factor in many Moroccan startups receiving the investment capital needed to fund their entrepreneurship.

Lastly, the DPF program will also seek to make the country more inclusive for women, whose livelihoods have been adversely affected during the pandemic. The program aims to ensure women have more access to economic opportunity in Morocco and encourage the creation of a good environment for women-led start-ups and for increasing women’s representation in business.

Morocco is taking steps to ensure that the national economy moves forward smoothly into a post-pandemic setting. The loan by the World Bank aims to support Morocco to join the global economy with a more comprehensive level of government support than ever before.