PwC Advisory helps Morocco with setup of population and social register

Morocco’s Ministry of Interior has hired PwC to help the government with setting up a national population register. PwC, which beat the likes of EY, KPMG and McKinsey & Company, will deliver the project through a collaborative effort between PwC Morocco and PwC India.

Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit's department has appealed to Big Four professional services firm PwC advisory to assist in setting up the identification and targeting program for social protection campaigns.

After having been selected to lead the study on the reorganisation of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, PwC Advisory – the consulting subsidiary of the audit giant PwC – has been awarded yet another strategic public contract.

PwC Advisory Morocco, in a consortium with the Indian subsidiary of PwC, won the project, which involves the identification of targets for social protection programmes being rolled out by the Ministry of the Interior. The compensation for the project is estimated at 12 million dirhams.

The study is financed by a loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). "This project aims to develop two registers: a national population register (RNP) with a unique identification number (NIU) and a single social register (RSU)," said the department in a release.

The National Population Register will have two main functions. Firstly, it will help ensure the generation and assignment of NIUs and prevent data-duplication by way of updating identity data. Secondly, it allows for the automatic authentication of the identity of each individual before concluding a transaction.

Targeting for such programmes has been an obstacle for several years now, and has blocked major reforms, including the decompensation of gas and sugar, which has had a major impact on disadvantaged sections of the population. "The establishment of such a digital identification system can prove to be a colossal undertaking for Morocco," said the Ministry of the Interior.

Nevertheless, the Ministry anticipates two major areas of difficulty for the project. The first is electronic identification. Due to its cross-sectoral nature, electronic identification must be supervised at a high level and lead to strong coordination between public bodies. The second issue lies in the inadequacy of the technology being used. "Digital identification is intrinsically technological, it requires a powerful ecosystem: management, governance and technology are important aspects for the design and establishment of RNP," explained the ministry. 

PwC advisory will aim to help and support the Ministry of the Interior in this project for three years. Moreover, the Moroccan branch relied on the expertise of PwC's Indian sister subsidiary. 

Thanks to the Indian arm’s expertise in the field, and a competitive financial offer estimated at 12 million dirhams, PwC managed to win the contract for which three other operators were in the running: Big Four rival EY, a consortium of KPMG & Atexo Morocco, as well as Mckinsey & Company.

McKinsey & Company was eliminated from the running "for introducing a subcontractor without the prior consent of the Customer.” The KPMG & Atexo consortium was rejected "for not obtaining the minimum technical score of 70/100." Meanwhile, the quotation of 24.6 million dirhams for the project from EY was deemed too expensive by the Ministry.