The country has taken the measures announced by the Economic Vigilance Committee to address the impact of the Corona virus pandemic. However, these measures have not yet included micro-finance victims. The professional group of Moroccan banks has announced that those who have lost their jobs due to the Coronavirus pandemic (employees, professionals and small businesses) would benefit from the procedure for deferring the repayment of their debt. Those affected may, upon application to their banking institutions, suspend payment over a period of three months until 30 June 2020, renewable once for a similar period. This measure concerns real estate loans and consumer loans with the condition that warranty of the “Caisse Centrale de Garantie” and life and disability insurance coverage are extended for the same period.
The “clients” of microcredit institutions, about 900,000 people, half of whom are women, are mainly working-class and low-income earners. They borrow with interest rates exceeding 30% and are exposed to threats from microfinance institutions when they encounter repayment difficulties due to unstable working and living conditions and regression or interruption of their income.
The repercussions of the Corona virus pandemic will aggravate the crisis of microprojects and subsistence agriculture, and their bankruptcy will spread. The social and psychological conditions of micro-finance victims will deteriorate due to the loss of their jobs and livelihoods. Their spending will increase to guard against the spread of the epidemic in the face of the public health system dismantled by decades of liberal policies in favour of the private sector. Containment also imposes the acquisition of basic consumer goods whose prices are rising as a result of price liberalization and the reduction of the budget of the compensation fund and the import of most food items, in addition to water and electricity bills, rents, children’s education, etc. The cost of these goods is increasing as a result of the liberalization of prices and the reduction of the budget of the compensation fund and the import of most food items.
Victims suffer from pressure from micro-credit institutions that impose prejudicial conditions included in contracts where victims do not read the conditions and sign under duress. These institutions have accumulated huge profits in recent years from borrowers’ pockets.
It is time to stop this greed. The necessary protection against the spread of the Corona virus and the resulting crisis makes it urgent to stop the repayment of micro-loans.
Thus, the Association ATTAC CADTM Morocco calls for :
It also calls on the victims of microcredit to mobilize for :
The association ATTAC CADTM Morocco :
To contact our organization, please use the following links or numbers:
National Secretariat
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Arabic version : https://bit.ly/3aw6Vdl
membre du réseau CADTM, l’Association pour la Taxation des Transactions en Aide aux Citoyens au Maroc (ATTAC Maroc) a été créée en 2000. ATTAC Maroc est membre du réseau international du Comité pour l’annulation de la dette du tiers monde (CADTM) depuis 2006 (devenu Comité pour l’abolition des dettes illégitimes depuis juin 2016). Nous comptons 11 groupes locaux au Maroc. ATTAC veut être un réseau aidant à l’appropriation par les acteurs engagés dans l’activité sociale, associative, syndicale et plus largement militante des enjeux de la mondialisation sur les problématiques de résistance sociale et citoyenne.
www.attacmaroc.org
http://arabic.cadtm.org/
Adresse : n°140, rue Cadi Bribri Akkari 10000. Rabat. Maroc
Email : attac.cadtm.maroc at gmail.com
Site Web attacmaroc.org Tel 00 212 6 61 17 30 39