Morocco courts development banks to help fund expanded USD 13 bn rail plan ahead of 2030 World Cup

Morocco wants development banks to help cover a rail program it has raised to MAD 134 bn (c. USD 13 bn) by 2030, Transport and Logistics Minister Abdessamad Kayouh said at a forum on financing African rail in Rabat on Wednesday. The figure is MAD 38 bn above the plan King Mohammed VI launched in April 2025.

Kayouh asked lenders for loans matched to rail’s long payback periods, guarantees to pull in private investors, and funding to run the network rather than only build it. Public budgets can no longer carry the cost alone, ONCF Director General Mohamed Rabie Khlie told the forum. The African Development Bank (AfDB) lent EUR 205 mn for the Kenitra–Marrakech high-speed corridor in September.

The program covers that corridor, a link to Nador West Med port, more commuter services in the big cities, and 168 trains ordered last year for MAD 29 bn. It feeds state operator ONCF’s Rail 2040 strategy, which targets 43 cities by 2040, up from 23.

Gulf funds have backed Moroccan rail before. Four of them financed 22% of the USD 2.3 bn Al Boraq line, and the UAE pledged in 2023 to invest in Moroccan high-speed rail without naming a figure. The AfDB said financing offers for ONCF’s plan topped USD 13 bn, against the USD 8.8 bn Morocco sought.

The forum closed yesterday with a Rabat Declaration backing public-private partnerships, blended finance and green bonds, and the launch of MoveCredits, a coalition set up by the International Union of Railways to let rail operators earn carbon-market revenue when traffic shifts off the roads. The UIC puts the potential revenue at USD 27-72 bn by 2050.