Moroccan monarch, King Mohammed VI has reiterated the kingdom’s commitment towards the gas pipeline project with Nigeria.

He  stressed the potential benefits that the project could bring not only to Africa but also Europe.

The monarch made his remarks during a speech marking the 48th anniversary of the Green March – an annual event that celebrates Moroccans’ march against the Spanish colonization of Morocco’s southern provinces.

The Green March was a mass demonstration in November 1975, coordinated by the Moroccan government and military, to force Spain  to hand over the disputed, autonomous semi-metropolitan Province  of Spanish Sahara  to Morocco.

At that time, the Spanish government was preparing to abandon the territory as part of the decolonisation of Africa,  just as it had previously granted independence to Equatorial Guinea in 1968

In his speech, King Mohammed VI emphasized the large-scale projects involving Morocco, including the pipeline project with Nigeria, which aims to benefit over 400 million people in West Africa

The pipeline is set to connect 11 countries in the region to benefit from Nigerian gas sources. Reiterating Morocco’s efforts in contributing to African development, the King acknowledged the challenges that hamper African countries’ advancement.

“The region along the Atlantic coast suffers from a significant deficit in infrastructure, and investment, despite skilled human capital and abundant natural resources,” the King said, stressing that Morocco has been working with other African countries to  tackle the situation.

“The Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline strategic project is part of that endeavor,” he added, saying that the project is designed to promote regional integration as well as to boost joint economic growth.

“It will also guarantee energy supplies for European countries,” the monarch asserted.

Morocco is set to host over 1,600 kilometers of the project, which is 5,600 kilometers long in total.

Several reports have emphasized the importance of the project, stressing that investors are expected to dedicate a budget of $25 billion to carry it out.

Initiated first by King Mohammed VI and former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari in 2016, the pipeline seeks to promote regional integration as well as reinforcing African energy security.

The project is also generating unwavering support from many countries, which signed Memoranda of Understanding with Morocco’s and Nigeria’s petroleum and hydrocarbon companies.

Last year, several other countries signed agreements with Morocco, including Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Ghana.

This is not the first time that King Mohammed VI celebrates the project as a milestone for Africa. During last year’s Green March speech, said that the gas pipeline is a ”project for peace for African economic integration and for co-development: a project for the present and for the future generations.”

Full Speech of King Mohammed VI on 48th Anniversary of the Green March

A high-Level Ministerial Meeting on accelerating the financing of Africa’s emergence, has taken place in Marrakech, Morocco. The meeting on Thursday was on the sidelines of the  World Bank-IMF annual meeting.

Tagged “Marrakech Declaration”, it  calls for a “global financial architecture that is fairer and more conducive to Africa’s development”.

In this Declaration, the 48 countries taking part in the high-level meeting, organized at the initiative of the Kingdom of Morocco, called for the realization of the continent’s growth priorities, which respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of African states and contribute to the development of its populations.

They also called for a strengthening of cooperation efforts, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to support African countries in reducing their infrastructure deficit, notably through increased financing, the provision and transfer of technical and technological expertise, and capacity building.

Addressing donors, partners and friendly countries, the African countries also called for support for the emergence of a dynamic, wealth-creating private sector, capable of supporting the development of structuring infrastructure projects and bridging the infrastructure financing gap.

At the meeting, they invited the Kingdom of Morocco’s Minister of Economy and Finance to follow up on the implementation of the Declaration, and to set up an inter-African task force to share best practices and experiences in the fields of infrastructure development and financing in Africa, assisting in the development of structuring and bankable infrastructure projects, and supporting African infrastructure projects at road shows to raise funds from potential investors.

They also agreed to support the establishment and operationalisation of the Inter-African Task Force as part of an open dialogue aimed at promoting infrastructure development activities in Africa.

They also reaffirmed their commitment to working towards sustainable African co-emergence, in which infrastructure investment would play a key role as a development driver, within the framework of joint continental and regional initiatives; to capitalize on international infrastructure initiatives for the benefit of the African continent’s emergence, and to intensify their joint efforts to strengthen the business climate by improving structural conditions for investment, mobilizing financing to stimulate economic recovery, and creating a favourable environment for entrepreneurship and innovation.

The participating countries also reiterated their commitment to encouraging the establishment of a distinct climate governance model based on a spirit of partnership and African ownership, and to working to mobilize diverse sources of financing, particularly private, in order to meet Africa’s infrastructure challenge more effectively and reduce the pressure on their public resources.

They also stressed that, despite their efforts, they still face major challenges in terms of infrastructure, which plays a crucial role in developing their industries and value chains, creating jobs, improving the standard of living of their populations, and contributing to achieving the objectives of Agendas 2030 and 2063.

The Marrakech Declaration asserted that the question of financing remains a crucial issue to be addressed for the development of ambitious infrastructure programs, capable of bridging the infrastructure gap from which African countries suffer, and that this financing effort cannot be ensured by public resources alone.

The Marrakech Declaration points out that the lack of active, long-term international solidarity is considerably slowing down the momentum of climate action in Africa, penalizing the continent, which until 2020 has received only 12% of the annual flows of climate financing it needs.

The participants in this High-Level Ministerial Meeting agreed that the progress made by the continent at various levels, particularly in terms of infrastructure, has resulted in the implementation of large-scale projects, and bears witness to their countries’ determination to make good Africa’s infrastructure deficit and achieve sustainable development and solid growth.

They also noted that “the consolidation of intra-continental economic relations, in line with the objectives and commitments of our countries to develop South-South cooperation, is a key condition for the future development of our continent, and requires the establishment of quality infrastructures to support these ambitions”.

In their Declaration, the African countries thanked His Majesty King Mohammed VI “for His leadership and commitment to strengthening inter-African cooperation, as well as the government and people of Morocco for hosting the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, and for the warm hospitality extended to all participants”.

They also congratulated the Kingdom of Morocco on its designation as host country for the 2030 World Cup, which represents a unique opportunity to catalyse growth and infrastructure modernization in the Kingdom, and demonstrates confidence in Africa’s ability to meet the greatest challenges.