Morocco's investment charter: what incentives for the diaspora?

"Morocco offers investors incentives of up to 30%." The line gets repeated a lot in the diaspora, and it isn't wrong. It's incomplete. The investment charter's incentives are aimed first at projects of a size few families or small groups of investors ever reach. What actually concerns most Moroccans abroad sits in another article of the same text, and in an older scheme.

Key points

• The charter stacks incentives up to a ceiling of 30% of the eligible investment amount (Framework Law 03-22, art. 16).
• The main scheme targets projects of at least MAD 50 million creating at least 50 permanent jobs, or projects creating at least 150 permanent jobs (Order No. 3-12-23; Hespress, 2023).
• For Moroccans abroad, two levers matter more: the convertibility guarantee in article 31, and MDM Invest, a 10% subsidy capped at MAD 5 million.

What is Morocco's investment charter?

The investment charter is Framework Law No. 03-22, enacted by Dahir No. 1-22-76 of 9 December 2022 and published in Official Bulletin No. 7152 (official text, Adala portal, 2022). It succeeds the 1995 charter and sets the framework for state support to private investment.

It organises that support into several schemes (art. 8). The main scheme brings together three incentives: a common incentive, a territorial incentive and a sector incentive. Alongside it, specific schemes cover strategic projects, very small, small and medium-sized enterprises (TPME), and the international expansion of Moroccan companies.

The law sets principles. Rates, thresholds and procedures are left to implementing decrees and orders (art. 15). Those secondary texts hold the answer to the question an investor actually cares about: is my project eligible?

Which incentives does the main scheme offer?

The main scheme adds up three incentives, whose combined total cannot exceed 30% of the eligible investment amount (Framework Law 03-22, art. 16). The 30% is therefore a ceiling, not a guaranteed rate.

The territorial incentive, which steers investment towards less-served provinces, amounts to 10% or 15% of the eligible amount depending on the zone (Hespress, 2023). The sector incentive was set at 5% of the eligible amount in the draft decree adopted in January 2023 (Hespress, 2023). The common incentive rewards cross-cutting criteria, including permanent jobs and local production content.

Does a mid-sized diaspora project qualify?

Rarely, and it's better to know before building a funding plan around an incentive. The main scheme targets projects of at least MAD 50 million, provided they create at least 50 permanent jobs, a threshold set by Head of Government Order No. 3-12-23 of 1 March 2023 (order, copy hosted by the Casablanca-Settat CRI, 2023). A second route opens the scheme to projects creating at least 150 permanent jobs, with no investment threshold (Hespress, 2023).

For a sense of scale: MAD 50 million is a hundred times the MAD 500,000 contribution used as an example in our guide to investing in Morocco from abroad. A workshop, an agri-processing unit, a guesthouse or a professional practice sits far below it.

Strategic projects, for their part, start at MAD 2 billion (Hespress, 2023). That scheme is for industrial groups, not individuals.

What about small businesses?

The framework law provides a specific scheme for TPMEs (art. 20), whose conditions are set by a text separate from the charter itself. For a diaspora-sized project, that's the scheme to ask about first.

We don't reproduce its thresholds and rates here. They depend on implementing texts and agreements that change, and an outdated figure would do more harm than no figure at all. The CRI for the project's region can tell you what applies on the date of your file.

What guarantee does the charter reserve for Moroccans abroad?

Article 31 is the one that most directly concerns the diaspora. Moroccans living abroad who fund their investments in foreign currency benefit from a convertibility regime guaranteeing free transfer of after-tax profits, with no limit on amount or duration, and of sale or liquidation proceeds, capital gains included (Framework Law 03-22, art. 31).

It isn't an incentive, and it appears in no table of grants. Yet for an investor at a distance, it's the guarantee every other one depends on: being able to take your money back out.

It has one condition, funding in foreign currency, which we cover in our guide to the convertible dirham account.

Is there a scheme reserved for Moroccans abroad?

Yes: MDM Invest, which predates the charter. In its original form it granted a state subsidy of 10% of project cost, capped at MAD 5 million, to projects of at least MAD 1 million promoted directly by a Moroccan living abroad. It required a foreign-currency contribution of at least 25%, with bank credit covering up to 65% (Ministry of Economy and Finance, 2011).

The scheme has had interruptions. Suspended at the end of 2011, it was relaunched in 2015 with a MAD 100 million fund managed by the Caisse Centrale de Garantie (CCME, republishing L'Economiste, 2015). In 2025, in a written answer to Parliament, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita still described a subsidy of 10% of project cost capped at MAD 5 million, with own funds of at least 20% (Bladi.net, 2025).

The gap between 25% and 20% shows the problem: conditions have shifted, and online guides don't always keep up. Before counting on MDM Invest, ask your bank for the conditions currently in force.

Where do you file?

The regional investment centre for the project's region is the entry point. Law 47-18 made it the one-stop shop for investment files, backed by a unified regional committee (Finances News Hebdo, 2018).

Ask about eligibility before committing any spending, and get the answer in writing. The CRI also handles company creation, a step we cover in our guide to starting a company in Morocco from abroad.

How should you assess a project before investing?

An incentive improves the returns of a good project. It doesn't turn a fragile project into a good investment. The order of questions stays the same with or without public support: who runs the project, what the file proves, and how the money will come back out.

That's the reading the certification level and the trust score of portal projects are designed to support. For an example of a sector file read question by question, see our three questions before investing in AgriTech.

This article describes public texts as of the date shown. Incentive thresholds, rates and conditions change: have your eligibility confirmed by the relevant CRI before any decision.