New Crowdfunding Platform to Open Retail Sector for Moroccan Craftsmen
By Kristina Fried
Rabat – Moroccan-born MIT student Zyad El Jebbari is the founder of a new and innovative platform, MoroCrafts, which could change the face of the Moroccan economy.
A large part of Morocco’s economy depends on tourism, which in turn is what many Moroccan craftsmen depend upon to earn a living. However, with the increase in retail transactions happening online, these craftsmen stand to suffer economic hardship. Because of the high illiteracy rate in rural Morocco, many of these craftsmen are forced to work through a middleman, selling their one of a kind handicrafts to a bazaar for next to nothing, while the bazaar then sells them to tourists and art galleries that are willing to pay much more for the products. As a result, the craftsmen often earn no more than 20% of the retail price, according to El Jebbari.
In order to ameliorate this problem, El Jebbari created the idea for MoroCrafts, an online crowdfunding platform that would allow Moroccan craftsmen to sell their handicrafts online and thus reach a wider consumer base.
