Morocco Obtains a 85 Million Euros Loan to Modernize Motorways

The Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM) manages a motorway network of 1,800 km, which is used daily by more than 430,000 vehicles. Supported by its development partners, the country will continue to modernize this increasingly popular network.

On Monday March 8th, the ADM announced the signing of a financing contract of 85 million euros (approximately 925 million dirhams) with the European Investment Bank (EIB), under the European Union’s external lending mandate (ELM) for the period 2021-2027.

A statement by the ADM states that this financing, contracted without a state guarantee, will help improve the flow of traffic through the digitization of payment systems and the installation of electronic toll systems,. This operation also provides for the establishment of a traffic monitoring and management system that will provide real-time access to traffic conditions throughout the motorway network.

Thus, the modernization and extension of the existing electronic toll system will make it possible to optimize the collection of user fees. This will help to partially offset the loss of liquidity caused by the health crisis and reduce the number of toll fraud.

According to ADM, more than 6,000 jobs are expected to be created during the implementation phase of the project. Exceptionally, the loan amount covers up to 83.6% of the total cost of the project, in principle limited to 50% by the bank’s statutes, and this in accordance with the operational emergency measure taken in April 2020.

It should be remembered that Morocco’s motorway network has experienced tremendous development momentum over the past two decades, going from 400 km to 1,800 km; therefore achieving more than 80% of the linear. This network is used by nearly 430,000 vehicles daily. For 2021, the ADM expects a turnover of 3.025 billion dirhams with an increase in traffic estimated at 21% compared to 2020.