3.4 Million Active People Are Self-Employed
7 December 2010
Read by 1499 persons
The "Moukawalati" program has created 3,200 businesses and 9,500 jobs since 2006.
People without diplomas are the most numerous to start their own business.
The lack of entrepreneurial culture and the absence of alternative financing are among the main obstacles to business creation.
Self-employment, as a means of generating income and, why not...jobs, is starting to develop, despite the inadequacy of objective conditions (lack of adequate funding, in particular) and cultural ones (embryonic culture of entrepreneurship) for its expansion, as some experts noted, regarding all Arab countries, during the international seminar on the subject recently organized in Marrakech.
To help unemployed graduates and job seekers to integrate into working life, Morocco set up in 2006 a support program for the creation of very small businesses (VSEs), known as "Moukawalati". Since the start of this program at the end of 2006 and until the end of November 2010, 3,200 businesses were created in this framework (see histogram), according to Hafid Kamal, General Director of the National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills (Anapec), manager of the program. And these businesses generated 9,500 jobs, or nearly three jobs per unit. By the end of the year, nearly 200 more VSEs should be created, according to Mr. Kamal's estimates.
This creation rate is obviously slow and the officials, both from Anapec and those from the relevant ministerial departments such as Employment and Trade and Industry, recognize it. Especially when we know that, due to a lack of post-creation support structures, the businesses created do not all manage to survive.
Even by reaching "a cruising speed" with 1,000 to 1,500 creations per year, "this remains very low compared to what is done in other countries," explains the CEO of Anapec.
"Moukawalati" in synergy with the INDH
The diagnoses carried out by Anapec on self-employment, and more particularly on its "Moukawalati" program, highlight difficulties of several kinds. These include, among others, the lack of entrepreneurial culture, the absence of alternative financing to bank financing, which is hardly adapted to the needs of VSEs, the complexity of administrative procedures for starting activities, difficulties in accessing land, the absence of social protection (outside of private contracts, considered expensive)... In short, the environment, in its current configuration, seems poorly suited to the development of VSEs. This led Anapec to undertake, from 2009, certain actions to remedy the identified shortcomings. In addition to multiplying audiovisual campaigns on the subject, it has mainly worked closely with the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) to finance certain projects. Through the conclusion of partnership agreements with provinces, about twenty businesses were able to be created this year through this mechanism.
Also to mitigate financing difficulties, Anapec has also set up regional platforms to support the creation of VSEs, and the experience conducted in Agadir, called "Souss Massa Draa Initiative", has enabled the financing of 43 projects since 2009. "This suggests that this experience could yield even better results," it is hoped at Anapec.
But beyond the "Moukawalati" program, which is, after all, of recent creation, what does self-employment represent today in the development of employment in Morocco in general? According to the statistics of the High Commission for Planning (HCP), self-employment (which includes independent workers and employers(*)) accounts for a good third of total employment: nearly 33% in the third quarter of 2010, or about 3.4 million jobs.
Higher education graduates are poorly represented in self-employment
This is obviously not negligible, except that this proportion seems to be stagnating. And this stagnation concerns both independent workers and employers (see table). The explanation for this phenomenon, in addition to the difficulties already mentioned, could be linked to the qualifications of project leaders. The structure of self-employment according to diploma shows, among independent workers, that those without diplomas are the most numerous: 2,287,232 people, or 80.5% of self-employed workers. Some 485,089 people have a secondary education level (17%) and only 70,182 have a higher education level (2.5%). This is exactly the same configuration observed among employers, with a less pronounced difference in the gaps separating each category: 45.2% for those without diplomas, nearly 30% for those with secondary education and less than 25% for higher education graduates.
The other characteristic of self-employment, which probably stems from the above, is that it is marked by quite high underemployment; at least compared to underemployment in total employment. Indeed, underemployment for the year 2009 (this data is only annual) represents 30% of self-employment when it is only 10% in total employment!
All this corroborates the observation that self-employment is still weak, not only in Morocco but also throughout the Arab countries. It is not surprising, under these conditions, that "75% of the Arab economy and 90% of its trade" are controlled by...5,000 families, as an official from the Arab Labour Organization indicated at the Marrakech seminar on self-employment.
(*) Definition: Independent workers are people who work for themselves, and employers are those who employ others and...employ themselves.
Published December 6, 2010
Posted online December 7, 2010
lavieeco.com
People without diplomas are the most numerous to start their own business.
The lack of entrepreneurial culture and the absence of alternative financing are among the main obstacles to business creation.
Self-employment, as a means of generating income and, why not...jobs, is starting to develop, despite the inadequacy of objective conditions (lack of adequate funding, in particular) and cultural ones (embryonic culture of entrepreneurship) for its expansion, as some experts noted, regarding all Arab countries, during the international seminar on the subject recently organized in Marrakech.
To help unemployed graduates and job seekers to integrate into working life, Morocco set up in 2006 a support program for the creation of very small businesses (VSEs), known as "Moukawalati". Since the start of this program at the end of 2006 and until the end of November 2010, 3,200 businesses were created in this framework (see histogram), according to Hafid Kamal, General Director of the National Agency for the Promotion of Employment and Skills (Anapec), manager of the program. And these businesses generated 9,500 jobs, or nearly three jobs per unit. By the end of the year, nearly 200 more VSEs should be created, according to Mr. Kamal's estimates.
This creation rate is obviously slow and the officials, both from Anapec and those from the relevant ministerial departments such as Employment and Trade and Industry, recognize it. Especially when we know that, due to a lack of post-creation support structures, the businesses created do not all manage to survive.
Even by reaching "a cruising speed" with 1,000 to 1,500 creations per year, "this remains very low compared to what is done in other countries," explains the CEO of Anapec.
"Moukawalati" in synergy with the INDH
The diagnoses carried out by Anapec on self-employment, and more particularly on its "Moukawalati" program, highlight difficulties of several kinds. These include, among others, the lack of entrepreneurial culture, the absence of alternative financing to bank financing, which is hardly adapted to the needs of VSEs, the complexity of administrative procedures for starting activities, difficulties in accessing land, the absence of social protection (outside of private contracts, considered expensive)... In short, the environment, in its current configuration, seems poorly suited to the development of VSEs. This led Anapec to undertake, from 2009, certain actions to remedy the identified shortcomings. In addition to multiplying audiovisual campaigns on the subject, it has mainly worked closely with the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) to finance certain projects. Through the conclusion of partnership agreements with provinces, about twenty businesses were able to be created this year through this mechanism.
Also to mitigate financing difficulties, Anapec has also set up regional platforms to support the creation of VSEs, and the experience conducted in Agadir, called "Souss Massa Draa Initiative", has enabled the financing of 43 projects since 2009. "This suggests that this experience could yield even better results," it is hoped at Anapec.
But beyond the "Moukawalati" program, which is, after all, of recent creation, what does self-employment represent today in the development of employment in Morocco in general? According to the statistics of the High Commission for Planning (HCP), self-employment (which includes independent workers and employers(*)) accounts for a good third of total employment: nearly 33% in the third quarter of 2010, or about 3.4 million jobs.
Higher education graduates are poorly represented in self-employment
This is obviously not negligible, except that this proportion seems to be stagnating. And this stagnation concerns both independent workers and employers (see table). The explanation for this phenomenon, in addition to the difficulties already mentioned, could be linked to the qualifications of project leaders. The structure of self-employment according to diploma shows, among independent workers, that those without diplomas are the most numerous: 2,287,232 people, or 80.5% of self-employed workers. Some 485,089 people have a secondary education level (17%) and only 70,182 have a higher education level (2.5%). This is exactly the same configuration observed among employers, with a less pronounced difference in the gaps separating each category: 45.2% for those without diplomas, nearly 30% for those with secondary education and less than 25% for higher education graduates.
The other characteristic of self-employment, which probably stems from the above, is that it is marked by quite high underemployment; at least compared to underemployment in total employment. Indeed, underemployment for the year 2009 (this data is only annual) represents 30% of self-employment when it is only 10% in total employment!
All this corroborates the observation that self-employment is still weak, not only in Morocco but also throughout the Arab countries. It is not surprising, under these conditions, that "75% of the Arab economy and 90% of its trade" are controlled by...5,000 families, as an official from the Arab Labour Organization indicated at the Marrakech seminar on self-employment.
(*) Definition: Independent workers are people who work for themselves, and employers are those who employ others and...employ themselves.
Published December 6, 2010
Posted online December 7, 2010
lavieeco.com
