Alaoui M'Hammdi, Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, who was speaking at a high-level seminar in Addis Ababa on Friday on " Private Sector Engagement, SMEs Inclusivity and Regional Value CHains Development under the AfCFTA", noted that these actions by Morocco had helped to increase the total value of the Kingdom's bilateral trade with African countries by 9.5 percent as an annual average.

Morocco is also working, through the Chérifien Office of Phosphates (OCP), to develop an advanced continental value chain that will enable Africa, within years, to have fair and equitable access to sufficient quantities of fertilizers, by adopting, a clear vision to implement projects that will change the agricultural appearance of the Continent and enhance its food security, Alaoui M'Hammdi said.

To exemplify for this, she added, the most prominent of which is the work to establish an industrial platform for the production of fertilizers in Ethiopia at a cost of 3.7 billion dollars and with a production capacity of about 2.5 million tons annually of fertilizers destined for the local and export markets, in addition to opening a factory in Ghana, which will be dedicated to the manufacture of fertilizers, and a second factory in Nigeria, which will be dedicated to the manufacture of ammonia used in agricultural fertilization.

The Moroccan diplomat also cited the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline project as an ambitious initiative aimed at developing the capabilities of African resources, reshaping the regional energy map, enhancing the logistical and competitive capacities of African gas and strengthening its position in the European market.

All these initiatives are an expression of Morocco's firm commitment to the principles of South-South cooperation, solidarity and synergy between the countries of the African continent, Alaoui M'Hammdi underlined.