OPINION: The Moroccan version of a visionary leader who is actually delivering

By a leader having a vision for a country, we know it as referring or should be in reference to a leader who is able to galvanize the that country in order to turn what could have been an adverse disadvantage into a comparative advantage to fuel that country's socio-economic growth.

Almost every country on earth has disadvantages and opportunities in varying measures. Some countries just found themselves perched in places that are totally deserts and with dry sand making up 99% of their natural endowment. Others are located right in the middle of oceans and their only endowment is water that surrounds them and probably fish and coral reefs. While others are located in the world’s tropical forests and others are located right on the Equator, a world renown geographical phenomena that comes with varying natural endowments in terms of the soils, minerals, climate and water.

However, as the English adage goes, there is always a silver lining on the horizon of every dark cloud.

This brings me to the breathtaking success story of a North African semi-arid desert country of Morocco.

Morocco is largely a mountainous country and is host to the Atlas mountain ranges that stretch about 1,350km from northwest to southeast of the country.

Although Morocco stretches up to the Mediterranean Sea, the country is largely arid with only 17% of its land being arable. This means that there is very little land for agriculture, yet whatever agricultural production to be done in Morocco must be with irrigation. Morocco isn't endowed much with natural resources except salt and manganese.

Obviously, this is in no measure a match with other countries of Africa that are enormously endowed in minerals, oil and gas,  good fertile agricultural soils, forests and fresh water bodies.

Probably, one can say that the "silver lining" that Morocco has is in terms of its geographical proximity to Europe. Morocco is only separated by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar from Spain. This proximity has offered Morocco with an ideal opportunity to exploit and export a number of things to Europe while helping the country exploit its otherwise adverse situation to the benefit of its current enviable socioeconomic transformation status.

Being an arid desert and mountainous country with few natural resources, Morocco would have been relegated to the likes of her impoverished toureg neighbors such as Mauritania, Niger and Mali, but due to the visionary approach of the Moroccan ruler, King Mohammed VI who has been at the helm since 1999, a lot of transformational strides have been undertaken that now puts the country in a different class of economic categorization.

In 2008, King Mohammed VI took a deliberate approach towards the exploitation and utilization of renewable energy based on leveraging the all year round availability of sunshine in his country. Morocco receives sunshine in 332 days a year making that sun a very huge resource for the generation of clean energy that was becoming very popular and in high demand in neighboring Spain.

So in 2013, Morocco established a Public- private partnership agency to oversee the country's ambitious vision for the renewable energy. They set off to produce 2,000MW of Wind energy and 2,000MW of solar energy by the year 2020. In its implementation program, five solar power fields have been established.

As we speak, Morocco is rated as the only country in the world that has the biggest solar power fields and is the only African country that is exporting power to Europe. The Moroccans are not yet done; they are now in advanced stages of laying a second power undersea cable that will see almost 4.3GW of power evacuated and exported to Europe bringing in the country approximately $4billion of  income annually.

Morocco is now rated as one of Africa’s growing economy and one of the most attractive place in Africa for doing business. The nominal per capta income for Morocco has increased steadily from $1,377 in 2001 to $3,158 in 2020 growing at an average of 4.74%. With a GDP of almost $130bn, Morocco comes in at number 5 on the list of richest countries in Africa. It is second richest non-oil-producing African country.

Therefore, Morocco certainly offers many African leaders instructive lessons to learn from. We have seen how visionary leadership in the Gulf and particularly in the United Arab Emirates, an otherwise dry sparsely populated desert was transformed into an oasis of affluence, economic growth and luxury to which each and every person would want to visit.