Rabat (AFP)
Some 4.3 million families deriving their income from the informal sector or from precarious trades will benefit from direct financial aid to deal with the crisis linked to the pandemic of the new coronavirus, the Moroccan Minister of Economy announced on Monday.
About 1.8 million households have already received this aid, financed by the special emergency fund "Covid-19" created under the impetus of the King of Morocco, said Mohamed Benchaaboum during a speech before the Parliament.
The aid allocated to those who lived on small black jobs or independent trades without social security coverage - artisans, day laborers, street vendors, couriers, guards, cleaning women, construction workers - range from 800 to 1,200 dirhams (75 to 110 euros) per month depending on the size of the household.
In addition to this aid, there is a freeze on water and electricity bills and deferrals of consumer credit. Food distributions have also started in all regions of the country for the poorest.
The informal sector represents almost 80% of jobs in Morocco where three-quarters of workers have no social security coverage.
This country of 35 million inhabitants had just over three million poor before the crisis, according to official statistics. The pandemic added to the drought, nearly 10 million Moroccans could find themselves in a very difficult economic situation, according to the World Bank.
The structured part of the Moroccan economy was not spared the economic paralysis induced by the containment measures imposed to limit the contagion.
Almost 142,000 companies (or 57% of the listed companies) have stopped their activities permanently or temporarily, half of those who are still working have reduced their production and some 800,000 employees and employees are unemployed.
Tax facilities have been provided for companies and exceptional loans are being released for around 9,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, according to the Ministry of the Economy.
The contribution of the State and the donations of the companies made it possible to feed the fund "Covid-19" up to 32 billion dirhams (2.9 billion euros).
The cost of aid for precarious workers currently represents 4.2 billion dirhams and that of unemployment benefits about two billion dirhams per month, according to the same source.
Some two billion of the "Covid-19" fund have also been allocated to the equipment of public hospitals (resuscitation beds, respiratory devices, screening test, etc.), according to the results presented to Parliament on Monday.
© 2020 AFP