Imtiaz-Croissance — Morocco's Growth-Contract Investment Grants for High-Potential SMEs

Created around 2010–2011 under the Pacte National pour l'Émergence Industrielle, Imtiaz is run by Maroc PME (formerly ANPME, headquartered in Rabat). Selected high-potential SMEs receive an investment premium worth 20% of their total project cost (material and immaterial investment), capped at 5 million Moroccan dirhams, in return for signing a 'Growth Contract' committing the firm to specific job-creation and value-added targets. Candidates are chosen through a public–private selection committee.

Between 2014 and September 2019, Maroc PME supported 1,293 enterprises through 1,729 individual investment projects worth approximately 8.3 billion MAD, with commitments to create 78,508 jobs, of which 39,392 direct. A single later cohort under the related Imtiaz/Istitmar-Croissance call selected 19 projects worth 318 million MAD, expected to create 4,788 jobs (1,833 direct), concentrated in textile-clothing, agri-food and metalworking.

Morocco's Cour des Comptes (Court of Auditors), reviewing ANPME's management of Imtiaz and its sister programme Moussanada — which together make up nearly all of the agency's activity — found real governance weaknesses: the joint monitoring committee for the two programmes met only once, ANPME had no dedicated unit tracking beneficiary complaints, and the agency had not built the reliable national SME database needed to verify outcomes independently. The job and investment totals above are therefore programme commitments and self-reported figures, not independently audited results.

Read the full analysis: https://marocpme.gov.ma/imtiaz-croissance/