OCP SA - UM6P Phase 3A Project

Project Description

This summary is related to an application requesting MIGA to provide a Non-Honoring of Financial Obligations by a State-Owned Enterprise (“NHFO-SOE”) guarantee to Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank and Société Générale S.A., to cover approximately EUR205.3 million of debt financing to be provided to OCP SA, Morocco’s largest SOE. The proceeds of the MIGA-guaranteed loan will be used for the financing of the construction of a new Phase of the Rabat campus of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (“Phase 3A” or the Project) with an initial construction cost estimated to be around EUR304.72 million. MIGA issued on May 09, 2002 a NHFO-SOE guarantee in support of the financing of the construction of Phases 1 and 2 of the Rabat campus. The contemplated maturity of the MIGA-guaranteed loan is 10 years.

The Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (“UM6P”) is a higher education institution offering multidisciplinary vocational and technical training to Moroccan and other African youth. UM6P is fully owned by OCP SA through its foundation, Fondation OCP, with current enrollment of 5,948 students, out of which 734 in the Rabat campus, located in the municipality of Hssaine, in Salé prefecture near the city of Rabat. The Project involves the expansion of the Rabat campus that will host (i) Lycée d'Excellence Sport-Études (Lydex SE) of Rabat, which will provide high-quality sports and academic secondary education to talented athletes in line with the “sports-studies” strategy defined by the Ministry of National Education, Preschool and Sports and, (ii) a state-of-the-art conference center of ~11,000 m2 with a capacity of 1,500 seats for hosting large scale events. Lydex SE will have a total capacity of 1,600 students and will include several facilities in addition to the academic buildings such as accommodations, a restaurant, a sports health center and sports facilities constituted of multi-activity athletics stadium, an aquatic center, a combat sports complex and basketball, handball and volleyball courts.  The sports facilities can be available to UM6P’s students and can also be used for regional and national high school sports competitions. The construction of the Project is ongoing with targeted completion by June 2024. 

Environmental and Social Categorization

The Project is a Category B under MIGA’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability (2013). Click here to view the Environmental and Social Review Summary.

Development Impact

The key expected benefits of the Project are increased access to high quality secondary education for underserved Moroccan students, more than half of whom are expected to come from low-income households, climate benefits from the campus’ sustainable design, and improving the diversity and quality of existing infrastructure through the development of world class educational, athletics and conference facilities in Rabat, Morocco’s capital. The Project is expected to strengthen the available facilities in Rabat, thereby expanding the types of events which the city can host in the areas of education, athletics, arts, culture, business, international conferences, and tourism. The Project is also classified as climate finance with resource efficiency measures, on-site solar power generation, and will be aligned with the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), a global sustainability standard for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.