Unsurprisingly, Casablanca Finance City has been ranked as the most attractive financial center on the African continent. For the GFCI 30 edition, the “Global Financial Centers Index” (GFCI) attributes Casablanca Finance City (CFC) as the continent’s leading financial center with 632 points.
Global Financial Centres Index 2021:
Despite a drop in the world ranking from 46th to 53rd place among the 116 financial centers, the Casablanca financial center is still ahead of Cap Town (62nd) and Johannesburg (64th), which have nevertheless recorded a clear advance, respectively by 32 and 34 points as well as a gain of 20 and 26 places, but also Mauritius (73rd), Kigali (94th) and Nairobi (98th).
Decline that the China Development Institute (CDI), the author of the report, explains the drop in the average global rating of 12.9 points (2.05%) due to the continued uncertainty surrounding international trade, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the geopolitical and local unrest. This is, moreover, the third consecutive drop recorded at the level of the indicator of the world financial center.
As for the MENA region (North Africa and the Middle East), the financial center of Casablanca ranks 4th, behind Dubai (18th worldwide), Abu Dhabi (36th), and Tel Aviv (49th), and ahead of Doha (68th), Bahrain (71st) and Riyadh (101st).
What is The Global Financial Centers Index?
The Global Financial Centers Index is one of the global indices measuring the competitiveness of financial centers. To develop this ranking, a benchmark for international investors, the Global Financial Centers Index assesses the competitiveness of financial centers worldwide based on a series of parameters such as the quality of their infrastructure, human capital, business climate, or reputation.
The ranking considers 103 factors that makeup five main criteria: business environment, financial sector development, infrastructure, human capital, and reputation.
Casablanca Finance City in Numbers:
– More than 200 member companies with “CFC status”. This community brings together 39% Moroccan companies operating internationally, 41% European companies, 9% Asian companies, and 9% American companies. – CFC companies cover 50 African countries.
– 1st green financial center in Africa and the Middle East, according to the “Global Green Finance Index” (GGFI) 2020, which is the global index of green finance.
– 15 partnerships with the most important international financial centers (London, Brussels, Luxembourg, Paris, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Astana, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Shanghai, Busan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Montreal, and Toronto).
– 20 South-South partnerships (Mali, Senegal, Niger, Guinea-Conakry, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Mauritius, and Madagascar).
– Since 2016, the tax contribution of CFC members has increased from 340 million dirhams (MDH) to 940 MDH.
– Creation of 6,690 permanent jobs by the CFC community.
