Women run just 15.6% of Moroccan companies, receive 10.8% of business loans

Women ran just 15.6% of companies in Morocco in 2024, while women-led businesses accounted for only 10.8% of total lending, according to a report by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The report, published among the documents accompanying the 2027 Finance Bill, found that women ran 60,363 companies out of a total of 388,446.

Women remain underrepresented in business

According to the report, only 12.3% of companies in Morocco have at least one woman owner, compared with 40.3% in countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and 30.1% in sub-Saharan Africa. It said that the figures remain closer to the levels recorded in Arab countries (13.6%) and Turkey (15.8%). Women are most represented in the services sector, particularly in health and social work, where they run 43.1% of companies, and education, at 30.2%. Their share reaches 45% in other service activities and around 24% in financial, scientific, and technical activities. The report also found that women are more represented among newer businesses, running 17.8% of companies less than two years old and 16.6% of those aged between two and five years, compared with just 12.7% of companies operating for more than 10 years.

Women face barriers to business growth

Access to finance remains a major challenge for women entrepreneurs. According to the report, women-led businesses receive only 10.8% of total lending, limiting their ability to develop and expand their activities. Women also face difficulties in the labor market. Their labor force participation rate fell from 30.4% in 1999 to 19% in 2025, while female unemployment rose from 12.8% in 2000 to 20.5% in 2025. Education also plays a role in women’s participation in the labor market, according to the same source. In 2025, 45.4% of women with higher education were active in the labor force, compared with 14.4% of women without qualifications. The report found that the share of rural women active in the labor market fell from 36.9% in 2014 to 18.2% in 2025. In cities, it rose slightly from 17.8% to 19.4%.

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