Morocco will provide financial backing to local gaming startups, part of a state-sponsored push to generate more skilled jobs in the creative industries, diversify the economy and boost export revenue.
Tamwilcom, the state-controlled national credit-guarantee agency, will this week sign agreements with three gaming studios that will provide each with backing worth "millions of dirhams,” according to Communication, Youth and Culture Minister Mohammed Mehdi Bensaid.
"Our capital is not courageous and typically expects quick profit,” Bensaid said an interview on the sidelines of a gaming exhibition in the capital, Rabat, on Wednesday. "That’s where Tamwilcom comes in, as it allows us to de-risk funding by banks for gaming startups.”
The authorities expect one or two of the firms to become unicorns – defined as companies worth at least US$1bil (RM3.96bil) – by 2032.
"Gaming startups are now eligible for Tamwilcom support just like other Moroccan firms,” Bensaid said. "Gaming is what will allow Morocco to have its first unicorns.”
The kingdom has set a target of raising the local gaming industry’s annual revenue to US$3bil (RM11.8bil) by 2032, from US$200mil (RM792mil) currently.
"This is a sector that moves extremely fast. We only need two or three unicorns to attain that target,” Bensaid said. "There is already one firm slated to become a unicorn, which is June Studio.”
Founded in 2023 by Ilias Belabed, June Studio is working on two games and needs US$757,400 (RM3.01mil) to bring them to fruition. It has already obtained a US$33,000 (RM130,000) subsidy from the French government under a partnership with Morocco to boost the local gaming industry.
One of the games, which is titled Exploitation: Corporate Greed and sees fictional enterprises battle for control of mineral resources in outer space, won praise from Morocco’s Crown Prince El Hassan at the conference’s opening ceremony on Tuesday, Belabed said. – Bloomberg
