Morocco is "well aware of the issues and challenges facing African countries, particularly those on the Atlantic seaboard. In fact, despite the quality of its human resources and the abundance of its natural resources, Atlantic Africa suffers from a significant infrastructure and investment deficit", he pointed out.
Rabat is looking for "practical and efficient solutions" to counter this trend, he continued.
"A lever for regional integration"
"It's within this framework that the strategic Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline project fits in, seen as a lever for regional integration designed to bring together the conditions for a common economic take-off, to set in motion a dynamic conducive to the development of the Atlantic band", according to the monarch.
What's more, the project will also provide "a secure source of energy supply for European countries", he says.
In this context, upgrading the infrastructure of Sahelian countries and connecting them to transport and communications networks remains a key challenge, he concluded.
A project to give Africa a new economic dimension
The Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project, launched in 2016, will bring Nigerian gas to 13 West African countries, to Morocco and, via Morocco, to Spain and the rest of Europe.
The pipeline will have a subsea section of 5,300 kilometers, from Bars Island in the Niger Delta to Dakhla, Morocco. The onshore section, 1,700 kilometers long, will run from Dakhla to the Maghreb European Pipeline (MEP). The total length of the pipeline will be around 7,000 kilometers, with some 13 compressor stations.
In June 2023, Nigerian group NNPCL, one of the investors, declared that the project was undergoing an environmental impact assessment, GasOutlook reported.
