So you can have access to a lot of raw materials here especially for the cosmetic industry and you have like several hubs including Essaouira Agadir in the south of Morocco and by the way I mean the industry is doing good but they could do better. We want to see champions like Clinique and L'oreal coming from Morocco. It's not happening yet but you know they're on the track and hopefully with another boost from the U.S. and from other investors they could do better right.
Toyin Umesiri: I also see an opportunity where indigenous brands actually could - we could create a market access in the U.S.. So when you think about the skincare industry in U.S. you think about the Korean brand right - actually made a name for themselves where in the U.S. Korean skincare is like lighting up right. So I know that as Africans we have our own remedies whether medicinal or beauty you know things that are native that we've been using for hundreds of years that the world knows nothing about but I think the opportunity we have is how do we bring those brands and how do we tell our story and how do we own that supply chain. Because we usually play at the raw commodity mostly but how do we not just do Cocoa but we do Chocolate not just do Shea butter and Argan oil but we actually have branded items so that's the entire retail supply chain that we also see an opportunity in. And I think Morocco has - you already have that name. It would be incredible to see how we can find you know brands that we can actually take global. So that's something that I think about when I think across because your country is prime. I mean the beauty industry is mature. I know you have a lot of trade fair I subscribe to some of them in terms of your beauty - yes I do.
Rabia Alama: that's cool that's cool
Toyin Umesiri: I'm telling you nobody does beauty like Morocco that I mean that I know of and then South Africa also the skincare industry in South africa is very good as well. Okay so I want to change - shift a little bit - In your role at the American Chamber of Commerce you deal a lot with trade facilitation and one of the things I try to tell people particularly diaspora that they have to up-skill. They have to step up the game in terms of how they engage in trying to bring a buyer and a seller or an investor or define having to bring them together to actually see a deal happen. So I don't know if you could just share a little bit like what does it take to close a deal?
Rabia Alama: Well look I mean our role for example I mean we used to take delegation to the U.S.; exporters for example you cannot sell to the U.S. if you do not go and see a trade show like the Fancy Food show - this is for food. Basically Morocco will exhibit Olive oil and some other commodities for sale but so you have to go and see what the other competition is doing and this will be like taking a role in this in connecting like exporters with the trade show with the buyers in the U.S. and we'll do the vice versa too for example we work closely with the commercial service of Casablanca here at the U.S. Consulate when they receive a trade mission from the U.S.. Recently we helped the trade mission from Miami. It was a multi-sectoral for example they had companies in the OTC they have all the vitamins to be represented here in Morocco. They had fashion design, they have interior design companies and so basically we connect them through B2B but they do their homework before coming. You cannot come to a market before you're doing like your homework on knowing the market knowing how to find the best partner and also using trade facilitation institution like ours and our partner strategic partner the U.S. commercial service so we work closely almost daily on connecting the U.S and Morocco.
Today I mentioned we have about 150 U.S. companies and several distributors of U.S. brands and even the number of franchises is growing in Morocco from Starbucks to KFC, Pizza hut, Domino and named the franchises so this is a joint effort where you connect the buyer the seller the franchise or the franchisee but everyone does his homework. Everyone does his part of the work so we can identify the best partner because the day you identify a partner who's not credible then the whole business collapses and you end up producing failures instead of producing success stories. So it takes some joint effort of market research, field work and then connecting B2B networking and today the world is amazing with all this virtual platform where you can put you know all these beautiful information from training to market research to videos to networking in one platform like the Nazaru Trade which I you know I really want to keep promoting and keep talking about because it could really produce amazing success stories.
Toyin Umesiri: Well I really appreciate that because the reason we actually built that is exactly what you described because I think your country is well advanced in trade facilitation than other countries on the continent and what I get a sense of in other parts of Africa is that everybody wants trade but they think it just happens. Trade doesn't just happen. No absolutely no. Just because you want it or you wake up screaming about it right - and I love that when you said that you actually physically bring people to the market and you reverse it. One of the jokes I say is and this it's funny but it's not. I say if my event was called Trade with China business summit do you know how many planes would fly from China? Wow yes I say that to say one of the challenges we have as a people is that what you just described. We need to grasp that what we truly want requires a lot of handshake and consistency and staying at it sticking at it and showing up. We know because the first event we had - I lived in Bentonville I used to work for Walmart - when I left I was like - wow I know what's going on with global market. I know everybody coming in and out but I want my own - you know, I want Africans to be here and to showcase their products and we had it there but I also saw the challenges that they are not used to - we expect the buyers to come to Africa. So i'm glad you said that - that's where that question was coming from. And I see some some questions for you as well Did you want to say something before i move to the questions?
Rabia Alama: well look I mean definitely, I mean there is an enormous work as I said of getting rid of stereotype - creating that trust between markets and Africa also African countries need to take charge and to put budget for marketing and promotion. How many countries does promote itself on big chain channels or how many countries like take consistently delegation to the U.S. to promote their investment platform or their local industries? So I think there's a consistent I will say engagement and budget from these countries to help the industry and the exporters and to help them access new markets.
Toyin Umesiri: Fantastic. So I'll take one question now and before we move on. So Dr. femi Osidele said: Rabia great presentation. I know very little about Morocco except football - wow with a smile so he's smiling at you. Then he says so I will ask a question about my field which is energy and natural resources - what are the primary energy sources in use for electricity, transportation industry in Morocco?
Rabia Alama: yes well it's great that you know football. I mean as I always say a country has to make itself known by something. If it's not food it's soccer if it's not soccer it's tourism but it's easy if you know soccer you made my life easier because I know these young Moroccans football players are so motivated and they always want to win and make Morocco on the rise and raise the flag. So this is one of the characteristic of Moroccans in general so they do a lot of effort because they always want to succeed. But in terms of energy Morocco is not an energy producer. All we have and this is maybe a pride for the country is solar energy. So yes Morocco has among the first biggest station of solar energy in the world and you can check it - you can google it online. It's called Noor. It's near Marrakesh and Morocco is aiming to have a mix of renewable energy of at least 50 percent before 2025 and so this huge project of solar is to help Morocco reduce the cost of production by at least 20 25 so all the energy today is put into solar and wind. So please if you have time google Noor and you will see how huge - I mean some people compare it to the one in Las Vegas the one owned by the U.S.. Some people even say it's like number one station in the world. I know a lot of countries are building solar station including Egypt and a few other countries but Morocco is far well advanced in solar and renewable in general.
So this is the number one source of energy. In terms of transportation Morocco is pretty well connected in terms of railway roads but also in the region I think Morocco is the only country that has the fastest train that connects Tangier in the north to Casablanca in two hours and this is almost like one thousand kilometer. So this is a huge project that was inaugurated just in 2019. So transportation is pretty well organized from highway railway and fast train we also have a subway called here not really the real subway but tramway that uses electricity. So overall the country is doing well in terms of alternative energy instead of like oil and gas because we're not a producer of oil and gas but we use a lot of solar and renewable and wind as well.
Toyin Umesiri: wow i just learned something new today. Yes I see more questions I'm going to take one more. I know because we had this glitch in the beginning so I'll take one more. Catlego says pertaining to digitization in the agriculture spectrum how is Morocco playing a role in digitizing the agricultural field?
Rabia Alama: Yes this digitization is a hot topic today not only in Morocco but I think in all over Africa and the good news is Morocco is taking it seriously now. Like three years ago they created a special agency called the Digital Agency of Morocco and so basically they will go through every field. The number one priority today for Morocco is all kind of e-services and e-government which makes sense because you know as soon as you go with e-government and e-services you cut bureaucracy and you cut corruption and you cut delays and administrative treatment. So this is a very good priority on the agenda today in terms of sectors and you know technology we have a lot of agencies helping Morocco with digitizing the sectors including USAID and other countries Germany and others but the good news we have some farms with several hectares like from 8000 to 10000 hectares using drones and precision agriculture to treat like using pesticide.
And even in organic industry a lot of precision agriculture drip irrigation very well automation. So I think the the sector is at least for the big farms like the eight thousand, ten thousand hectares they're really taking the thing seriously of course it's not generalized for small farmers but there are several local initiatives mostly from startups that they try like to help small farmers use the technology even though they are not technology literate. But overall the trend is here and even the aid and the government are helping so the production and productivity is better.
Toyin Umesiri: wow incredible you do have more questions but I think this is what i'm going to try to do is - all the open questions that we're asking here in Zoom I think I would find a way to move them to the platform. Sure I know usually when you come for Zoom and you end the Zoom everything goes away but I'll see where we can shift some conversations that way you can respond directly and maybe the person is actually asking something in context of their own work then we can take that conversation forward. I really want to thank you. This is only the beginning and I guess more engagements again. You are a gatekeeper and you have the key to Morocco and we are so happy for you to be on this platform.
Rabia Alama: Anytime we wish the best to the our African diaspora and to the African continent because we want to see it flourish and prosper because we want our youth to stay in the country instead of seeing them dying in the Mediterranean just to look for opportunities where the opportunities are here right.
Toyin Umesiri: wow that's the whole essence - I see a situation where with the population growth we've got to put the youth workforce to work.
Rabia Alama: absolutely
Toyin Umesiri: if not and it's our responsibility nobody's going to do it for us. So thank you again and I look to more partnership thank you so much.
Rabia Alama: all the best have a good day you take care.