Abdellatif Jouahri0:08
Listen, we were very agile, or rather very proactive. As early as 2004, when we sensed that European banks, particularly French ones, were withdrawing from Africa, we as a central bank pushed our banks to take over. At the African level, we pushed them, we helped them. Our banks are now present in 27 African countries—Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone.
But we set conditions as a central bank. The first condition is that this establishment aims to support the development of these countries, meaning a win-win situation where we cannot speak of neocolonialism. Fortunately, in my meetings with the governors of the concerned central banks, I have never heard that. We also demanded that the personnel and management of these banks be of high quality, not a disciplinary battalion—meaning people sent to Africa as punishment. And thirdly, we closely monitor rules and risks. First, it's branch-based. We have at least 45 subsidiaries and five branches of the three systemic Moroccan banks present in Africa.
I personally chair an Africa committee that holds two meetings per year where we follow the installation program, review activities, and look at the results. Now, this presence represents about 20% of the consolidated balance sheet of these banks and around 30% of their consolidated results. But here too, we are aware that we must be vigilant about risks. We closely monitor events. Many of these countries face security problems, stability issues, and sovereign risk problems. But here too, we try to be vigilant and obviously monitor the situation at these banks. The best proof is that we convene colleges of supervisors where our banks are present, and the supervisory committee includes regulators where Moroccan banks are present, conducting joint control missions with these regulators.
So there are also joint control programs with these regulators in these countries. Cybersecurity aspects are also present, so we follow them very closely. On the prudential level, the same rules apply to these African entities. And so I personally think we are making a contribution, of course, to these countries but also to Moroccan investors who have gone to Africa. We have interveners in construction and public works, in communications, and even in certain industries—meaning our banks support investors, and Morocco is perhaps the second-largest investor on the African continent.
Our banks support this movement, which helps these countries. And we, as a central bank, along with the central banks of these countries, have cooperation agreements where we provide technical assistance. In fact, I spent this entire morning meeting bilaterally with central bank governors to finalize the cooperation program between Bank Al-Maghrib and the BCEAO. All this is to give concrete content to what could be South-South cooperation that deserves to be further developed.
I just held a meeting before coming to see you with the Director General of the IFC, and we have in mind a program for capital markets and stock exchanges at the African level—trying to establish interoperability that can strengthen the action of these structures on African capital markets and the African stock market. We have drawn up a roadmap, and I hope that soon we will bring everyone together, starting in April of next year, to try to concretize a project that seems important and should complement this action within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area. As someone responsible for the financial sector in its entirety, this will be our concrete and rapid contribution to the AfCFTA.
