Last October, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) have announced the signing of the first guarantee agreement under the EU Trade and Competitiveness Programme. Among the main priorities of this programme is strengthening access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The agreement will help to improve the competitiveness of Moroccan SMEs, particularly in the key export sectors of automotive, textiles, agro-industry and agriculture.

It will facilitate SME access — via BCP — to sustainable finance to improve their export competitiveness, through modernisation and decarbonisation investment, capacity extension financing or working capital needs. The selected companies will receive free technical advice to build their capacities and support upskilling on export-related issues.

This Trade and Competitiveness programme is a regional blending mechanism, financed under the Neighbourhood Investment Platform (NIP) with EIB (51,900,000 euros) to provide finance for SMEs, which are part of industrial clusters and value chains. The Facility aim to address low competitiveness and limited access to finance for SMEs, as well as productivity and quality challenges that impede exports and integration in global value chains. The programmes in Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan support SME capex investments to increase value addition, expand operations, introduce new products, services, processes, marketing and distribution channels, improve sustainability and standards, capacity-building, training and advisory services to SMEs to improve productivity, sustainability and quality standards, and value chain diagnostics and cooperation with sector associations to better target investment opportunities.