Through Africa Tour 2025, Casablanca Finance City (CFC) has expressed its clear ambition to make Casablanca a financial and strategic hub for African economic integration. From Cotonou to Lomé to Accra, this tour of West Africa focuses on the rapidly changing economies, emerging logistics hubs, and new geographies of the continent’s capitals.
In an African context characterized by accelerated reconfiguration of value chains, increased pursuit of capital sovereignty and increased competition between regional financial hubs, Casablanca Finance City aims to strengthen its role as a platform for intercontinental interconnection. The CFC Africa Tour 2025, which took the Moroccan delegation to Benin, Togo and Ghana, is part of this dynamic effort to engage with local ecosystems, decipher growth trajectories and turn economic complementarities into concrete investment opportunities.
The Benin-Togo-Ghana axis is not important. It focuses on a dynamic economy, ports that are becoming essential for regional trade, and national investment in this economic policy. In an interview with Financial Afrik, Hisham Chaudhry, Director of Institutional Affairs and African Cooperation at the Financial City Authority of Casablanca, discusses the challenges of this latest CFC mission in 2025.
In Lomé, institutional and private actors operate in a market undergoing significant change. Do the local catalysts identified by the CFC make Lomé strategic in developing the story of sub-Saharan integration today?
Indeed, Togo positions itself as a key player in strengthening Africa’s economic integration. The first factor is that the country has embarked on a full-scale economic transformation. Within a few years, the country became the top reforming country in West Africa, according to the World Bank’s B-READY 2024 report. This progress demonstrates strong political will to modernize the regulatory framework, simplify procedures, and increase the competitiveness of the private sector. For CFC, this ensures a strong and reliable organizational environment that supports membership growth. Currently ranked among the top 100 ports in the world, the Port of Lomé is also Togo’s major logistics asset. It will handle more than 30 million tonnes in 2024, representing a significant increase in transshipment, making it an essential logistics hub in West Africa. It is an important vehicle for Africa’s commercial integration, as it is connected not only to coastal countries but also to inland markets such as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. Added to this is the country’s increasing attractiveness on the international stage. In 2025, investors from the Americas, Europe and Asia are strengthening their presence in logistics, technology, infrastructure and renewable energy under the Togo 2025 Roadmap. All these factors make Togo a solid growth platform in West Africa and a reliable and strong partner for our member companies.
The CFC Africa Tour also aims to facilitate the establishment of regional headquarters. What specific commitments and incentives does the CFC highlight to persuade African and international groups to choose Casablanca as their continental or sub-regional hub?
Our primary strength is our geographic location. Morocco is located at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, serving as a natural gateway to the African continent. In addition to this, to attract the establishment of regional headquarters, we offer structured packages based on concrete initiatives. First, we propose a regulatory and fiscal framework that is in line with international best practices. For example, companies that obtain CFC status enjoy benefits such as full corporate tax exemption for the first five years of operation, preferential income tax rates, and freedom of foreign exchange remittances. These conditions create a secure and competitive environment in which to manage our operations in Africa. Additionally, we provide community members with support mechanisms to facilitate “turnkey” establishments through streamlined administrative procedures through our one-stop-shop system, including company formation and hiring foreign employees. Currently, CFC Community’s workforce includes employees from over 30 nationalities. Once established, CFC member companies benefit from our unique network, bringing together economic actors and institutions to strengthen their activities and expand across the continent. Through initiatives like the CFC Africa Tour, we realize our goals by helping our members grow further, faster and more effectively by connecting them with the right partners and markets.
At the end of the Benin-Togo-Ghana phase, what concrete signals (capital, project, funding, listing, implementation decisions, etc.) of CFC Africa Tour 2025 do you think are most promising in the short term and in what realistic timeline can the market expect results? We strive to build concrete bridges between the continent’s economic centers and open up new opportunities for growth. In Benin, a visit to the Guro Jigbe Special Economic Zone highlighted the rapid development of industrialization, particularly in textiles, agri-food and pharmaceuticals. Companies can now project themselves concretely on local prospects and better understand the strategic connections of their sectors. Togo has great potential and we hope that the partnerships forged during the roadshow will produce lasting positive outcomes for the economy. The visit to the Port of Lomé helped to gain a deeper understanding of the infrastructure and value chain, strengthening Togo’s position as a promoter of trade and regional integration. In Ghana, government initiatives such as those already mentioned demonstrate a desire to improve the business environment and stimulate private investment. These exchanges have focused on sectors with high potential for investors such as fintech, infrastructure, tourism, water, construction, agro-industry and renewable energy, highlighting the strength and dynamism of Ghana’s economy. Overall, the CFC Africa Tour demonstrated that West Africa is a dynamic region and working collaboratively with public and private stakeholders is essential to developing solid and sustainable projects. CFC’s mission remains clear. It’s about simplifying business, connecting ecosystems, and providing a clear vision of growth opportunities, allowing each company to move at its own pace and choose the ideal time to deploy projects.
