In Morocco, services outsourcing is establishing itself as one of the economy's major sectors

The rapprochement between Cgem and Fmes is recognition that services outsourcing is a full-fledged economic sector and particularly in Morocco where it was the sixth largest provider of foreign currency before the COVID-19 pandemic. The sector appears to have weathered the health crisis.

"In terms of jobs, we are talking about 120,000 jobs, according to Youssef Chraibi, head of the Outsourcia group and president of Fmes. "We are the most dynamic sector for 2020. We even surpassed the automotive sector during this crisis. In terms of export revenues we moved into the top 3 of the most exporting sectors – thus generating foreign currency for the Kingdom – with 14 billion dirhams (1.3 billion euros). We should achieve an equivalent level in 2020 despite the crisis."

A resilience that is explained by the fact that in times of crisis, contracting parties need solutions even more to reduce their costs. Services outsourcing can therefore appeal even to companies that are usually reluctant to do so.

But one sector has particularly benefited from the global health crisis. "Digital transformation accelerated, e-commerce experienced unprecedented boom and in the sector that we serve the most, Youssef Chraibi asserts. "Of course telecommunications, e-commerce is becoming a very important sector for outsourcers. And we see that when the activity of e-merchants increases, they will have an ever-greater need for service providers who will help their customers manage sales, after-sales service… So everything that allows us a remote relationship and positions us as the best-positioned service providers to take advantage of this windfall."

After the telecommunications sector, services outsourcing has now extended to several other domains, such as banking. "For the last 5 or 6 years, we have begun to outsource practically all of the banking back office, explains Hassan Charaf, head of Commercial Development at Business Process Outsourcing. "Today we handle everything related to checks, trade finance, customer legal files, litigation… All of this is totally outsourced by regional popular banks and for the last 4 years. We have started to explore the international market." Contacts are thus established with German, French, Swiss and Indian banks.

While Anglophone Africa is ahead in services outsourcing, Morocco is the leader among French-speaking countries and others are following in its footsteps at a measured pace, such as Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar and Senegal.