Casablanca, Morocco (TMT)- Casablanca has the second “inclusive growth potential” for large cities (population over one million) in Africa, according to the 2015 MasterCard African Cities Growth Index (ACGI) report.
Casablanca “ranks at the upper end of the scale with regards to its rule of law, control of corruption and ease of doing business, and is in the second tier of middle class households as a percentage of households,” the ACGI 2015 report stresses.
According to the report, “Casablanca is the only North African city at the higher level of growth potential, supported by Morocco’s relative stability in a turbulent region.”
The ACGI report stressed that Morocco’s industrial hub “has high levels of fixed capital formation, health, access to electricity, water and sanitation. It is at the upper end of the cell phone subscription and air connectivity scales, with government effectiveness just beneath the levels of Kigali and the South African cities that rank highest in that factor.”
The report shed light on some negative points as well like when stating that “Casablanca does, however, rank among the lowest cities in household consumption expenditure growth and city population growth.”
According to the report, Casablanca kept its second position “despite attaining a lower score” compared to 2014.
The ACGI report is generated by computing inclusive growth and urbanization using two composite sets of indicators titled alpha and beta sets.
For the alpha set, its uses the following variables, each with a specific percentage: GDP per capita growth forecast (14.3%), Household consumption expenditure growth forecast (14.3%), Health (7.2%) Education (7.2%), Gross fixed capital formation (5.7%), Electricity (2.9%), Sanitation (2.9%), Water (2.9%), Financial account (9.5%), Foreign Direct Investment as % GDP (14.3%), Mobile cell subscriptions (9.5%), Air connectivity (4.7%), and Air capacity (4.7%).
For the beta set, the following variables are used, each with its respective percentage, GDP per capita growth (14.3%), Household consumption expenditure growth (14.3%), Political stability, absence of violence (2.4%), Government effectiveness (2.4%), Regulatory quality (2.4%), Voice & accountability (2.4%), Rule of law (2.4%), Control of corruption (2.4%) Ease of doing business (14.3%), Population city growth (14.3%), Urbanization (14.3%), and Middle Class Households as % of total households (14.3%).
The ranking said that Maputo, Mozambique ranked first, followed by Casablanca, Morocco (2nd), Lagos in Nigeria (3rd), Abidjan, Ivory Coast (4th), and Dar Essalam, Tanzania (5th).
The Moroccan Times.
