Most Moroccans continue to refrain from using digital payment when 62% of the North African country’s population use the internet.
The World Bank reported that only 17% of Moroccans aged more than 15 use digital payment while 1.6% of the population buy products and services online.
This phenomenon extends to the Middle East and North Africa region as a whole.
“While MENA countries’ populations have embraced social media use – more than expected given their levels of GDP per capita – the populations’ usage of the Internet and digital tools like mobile money to pay for services is lower than expected given country income levels,” the World Bank noted in a press release.
The organization reviewed the use of digital technology in the MENA in a recent report titled "The Upside of Digital for the Middle East and North Africa: How Digital Technology Adoption Can Accelerate Growth and Create Jobs."
As Moroccans continue to untrust digital payment, Moroccan businesses and the government work on digitizing their services.
The report found that 97% of Moroccan firms use emails to communicate with clients and partners while 55% of businesses have their own websites. Yet e-commerce remains low in the country with the B2C e-commerce index reaching 43 out of 100 in 2019.
Additionally, Morocco’s telecom infrastructure index is underdeveloped compared to Gulf countries. For instance, Morocco scored 58 out of 100 in 2020, which is lower than indexes of Tunisia (64), Kuwait (79), and the UAE (93).
At the governmental level, the Moroccan e-government development index is low as it reached 57 out of 100 in 2020.
The Moroccan government continues to implement its ambitious national project for the digitization of public administration and the expansion of internet coverage to rural areas.
Moreover, the North African country recorded a cybersecurity index of 43 in 2018 and freedom on the net index of 54 in 2019, noted the report.
Morocco has a long way ahead to reach full digitization of public and economic services as the digital sector offers tremendous opportunities for economic development.
"The gains from shifting to a more digital economy are exponential and governments should do everything they can to remove barriers preventing such a transition. The sooner and faster the push, the bigger the gains," said Ferid Belhaj, the World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa.
Belhaji noted that “digital transformation would provide jobs in a region where unemployment is unacceptably high, particularly among the youth and women. With concerted effort, this narrative can change.”
Notably, the report underlines that full economic digitization could increase MENA countries’ GDP per capita by at least 46% over 30 years, leading to a minimum long-term profit of $1.6 trillion.
The adoption of digital technologies is also expected to double the female labor participation rate by 20% over a 30 years period to reach 80 million women workers. It will also reduce frictional unemployment by 3%, felling to 7% of the labor force over a six-year period
As digital transformation provides promising benefits for the region, societal distrust of government, regulations and corporate institutions remains a major obstacle for the change.
To overcome the trend, the World Bank suggested policy regulations that promote market competitiveness to increase the availability and use of digital payments as well as reinforce financial inclusion within the MENA countries.