If we stick to the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC), the year 2022 recorded a drop in the number of new companies of almost 11% compared to 2021. Which is in itself an indication of weak business initiative in a difficult economic environment as well as continued uncertainty about the future.
A total of 93,272 physical and legal enterprises were established last year. A declining figure due to a complicated economic situation and the lack of medium and long-term visibility in 2021 when there were 104,932 business creations. In this last financial year and compared to a normative year like 2019, the number fell slightly by 1.8%.
That said, among the 93,272 companies created over the 2021 period, 63,219 are legal person companies and 30,053 are natural person companies. Respectively, the number of legal entity business start-ups fell by 12.5% and natural person business start-ups fell by 7.9% compared to 2021. It appears from the data that the trade sector accounted for 36, 32% of the total number of newly created companies.
It is followed by the construction sector, public works and real estate activities with a share of 17.65%, miscellaneous services with around 17.64% and transport with a share of 8.7%. In terms of legal form, 61.8% of the companies created were single-member public limited companies, 37.8% were limited liability companies, 0.3% were public limited companies and 0.1% were solidarity companies. In 2021, SARLAUs accounted for 56.5% of companies created, and SARLs for 43%, hence the certain enthusiasm for the creation of one-person businesses.
The Casablanca-Settat region takes the lion’s share of the total number of new businesses created with approximately 26,000 businesses, i.e. 27.8% of the total and 0.7% more compared to 27.1% of business creations a year ago.
The second region with the highest number of business creations is Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, with 13,519 businesses created over the period, or 14.5% of the total. This share has increased compared to the same period last year, when the North region had only 12.2% of the total number of companies created. Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima dethrones the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region, which occupied the second position in 2021.
The latter, however, remains on the podium with 12,138 companies created in 2022 (13%) down from 14.2% of the total of those created during the previous year. It is followed by the Marrakech-Safi region (9246), and Fez-Meknes (6969). The Souss-Massa region saw the creation of 6285 companies, while that of the Oriental created 5514. 4478 companies were born in Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra, 3337 in Beni Mellal-Khénifra, 2479 in Draa-Tafilalet , 2331 in Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab, and 981 in Guelmim-Oued Noun.
Commenting on these figures, Youssef Guerraoui Filali, economist and director of the Moroccan Center for Governance and Management, told MoroccoLatestNews that the decline in contracting is explained by several factors and in particular the difficult economic situation which characterized last year. . Youssef Guerraoui Filali added that the year 2022 was characterized by a difficult economic situation due to drought and inflation resulting from international geopolitical conditions, which affected entrepreneurial initiative and project leaders.
Our interlocutor pointed to another factor, namely the difficulty of obtaining financing for the projects, affirming that “the banks have not taken enough initiative to finance the bearers of entrepreneurial projects given the lack of vision, not to mention the low trust in government and the scarcity of official initiatives to encourage investment.
Youssef Guerraoui Filali further indicated that: ” The entrepreneurial initiative is not only based on financing, but also required a suitable business climate “. He cited as an example the “decree on public procurement, which concerns medium and large companies and which does not give opportunities to emerging and small companies”.
According to the economist’s analysis, the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the inflation crisis for the year 2022 have greatly affected the financial situation of existing companies, and they have also increased the bankruptcy rate. to 12,000 cases in the past year, which is data that affects the company’s initiative in general.
According to data from the firm Inforisk specializing in Moroccan business statistics, Morocco recorded more than 12,000 business bankruptcies last year, an increase of 17.4% compared to 2021. The majority of cases of bankruptcy were recorded among very small businesses, which employ less than 5 people and a turnover of less than 3 million dirhams per year.