Morocco lowers card interchange cap to boost acceptance at small merchants

Bank Al Maghrib has cut the cap on domestic card interchange fees to 0.5% from 0.65%, with a 0.15% rate for small and local businesses and for payments to government bodies through e-government services, Morocco World News reports. The rates, which took effect on 1 October, exclude tax and cover payments made in Morocco with Moroccan-issued cards.

The cut lands on issuing banks, which collect interchange out of the acquiring commission merchants pay. Merchants still carry that commission, and passing it to customers as a surcharge stays barred, so whether small retailers see the benefit depends on what acquirers do with the margin.

BAM wants more card acceptance at small merchants and on low-value purchases, where the old rate made accepting plastic uneconomic. It set the first ceiling, 0.65%, in October 2024, and has been working with the Competition Council since then on opening up the card acquiring market.

Far afield

Abu Dhabi agri players are making investments abroad. Elite Agro Holding (EAG) said it will put AED 660 mn into farms across the UAE, Morocco, and Mauritania, covering more than 9.3k hectares, according to a press release. Most of the money, AED 440 mn, goes to the 8.9k-hectare Aftout/Rosso project in Mauritania, which is targeting c. 244k tons of produce. Another AED 140 mn will develop the 400-hectare Sidi Yehia farm in Morocco, EAG's eighth in the country, growing blueberries, mandarins, and avocados. Only AED 80 mn stays at home, for a 25-hectare blueberry project in Al Ain with Emirates Food Industries. All three are MoUs, and the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development is a partner on the two projects abroad.

Jilting Slovakia

Chinese aerospace parts maker Hangyu Technology is putting up to EUR 105 mn (USD 121 mn) into a forging plant at Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City, after scrapping a Slovak project it had approved in February, Morocco World News reports, citing Chinese outlet NBD. The company dropped the Košice site after Slovak authorities added administrative review steps that extended approvals, and plans to close its Slovak subsidiary.

Hangyu makes high-end forgings and precision components for aerospace engines and gas turbines, supplying GE Aerospace, Safran, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and Honeywell, which puts it upstream of tier-one suppliers already operating in Morocco. Subsidiary Sichuan Delan Aviation Technology Development will run the project through a wholly owned Moroccan unit, with about USD 42 mn of the funding coming from Hangyu itself.

The project is still early: It needs China’s outbound investment clearances plus Moroccan permits and registration, and no completion date or headcount has been given. Morocco’s aerospace sector counts some 160 companies, 25,000 workers and around USD 3 bn in annual exports, with industry group GIMAS targeting USD 5 bn within three years.