(Ecofin Agency) - International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank’s private lending arm, has recently announced it will invest $373 million in Maghreb, mainly in Morocco and Tunisia to develop infrastructure projects. It also wants to support both countries as they cut spending in this sector to curb the budget deficit.

 IFC will also help the two nations establish private-public partnerships to support infrastructure financing, Sérgio Pimenta, IFC’s vice president for the Middle East and Africa, indicated. Plus, the institution works on fund supply for SME in the countries to boost job creation as youth’s employment is a great concern for both countries.

In Tunisia, economic growth remains tepid, 7 years after former president Ben Ali was ousted. Tourism sector remains severely affected due to several terrorist attacks in 2015, and the country’s sovereign rating was downgraded two times, in the last 7 months by the rating agency Moody’s.

In Morocco, though the economy is set to record a strong growth of 4.5%, the country needs to invest in education and access to financing for SMEs. “The big development challenge and the opportunities is the issue of entrepreneurship, the missing middle of small and medium enterprises that are not as present as other countries that have a similar level of GDP per capita,” Mr. Pimenta indicated.

Aaron Akinocho