The International University of Rabat and the Institut de l’Entreprise Familiale-Maroc have formalized a cooperation framework focused on family-business governance. Signed on November 4, 2026, in Rabat, at UIR’s Technopolis campus in Sala Al Jadida, the agreement is intended to run for five years. It connects an academic institution with the governance questions faced by entrepreneurial families and the companies they own or manage.
The partnership covers several complementary forms of cooperation: continuing education, conferences or scientific events, awareness initiatives and the promotion of sound governance practices. Its scope is therefore broader than a single course. It also provides for opportunities to share and disseminate knowledge, with the stated purpose of helping family businesses structure their governance and prepare more effectively for continuity across generations.
A certificate involving three partners
Alongside the bilateral framework between UIR and IEF-Maroc, a separate implementation agreement brings those institutions together with the Moroccan Institute of Directors. This agreement concerns a certificate in family-business governance. The distinction between the two arrangements matters: the first establishes a broad five-year relationship, while the second provides the framework for a specific training program dedicated to the governance needs of family-owned companies.
The announced certificate comprises five modules delivered over nine days. Its curriculum is set to cover directors’ responsibilities, the legal framework, governance bodies and decision-making processes. It will also address strategic and financial choices, risk management, internal control and growth financing. Taken together, these topics span several of the legal, organizational and financial dimensions involved in directing and overseeing a family business.
Training for a range of participants
The program is intended for shareholders, members of entrepreneurial families, directors and executives. Professionals who advise family businesses are also among its target participants. This range reflects the involvement of different actors in governance, from those who hold ownership interests to those responsible for direction and oversight, as well as advisers who support family businesses on specialized organizational, legal, strategic or financial matters.
For those participants, the announced structure provides a pathway centered on practical governance subjects. Directors’ duties and the operation of decision-making bodies sit alongside legal, strategic and financial considerations. Risk, internal control and methods of financing growth complete the curriculum, giving people with different roles in the family-business ecosystem a shared set of subjects through which to examine governance responsibilities and choices.
Partners bringing complementary expertise
The partners assign a distinct contribution to each participating institution. UIR and ESADE Executive Education provide academic expertise, while the Moroccan Institute of Directors contributes its governance experience. IEF-Maroc, for its part, brings knowledge of the issues specific to family businesses. The arrangement consequently combines education, experience relating to boards and an understanding of the relationships connecting a company, its shareholders and the entrepreneurial family.
UIR says the initiative extends governance-related training programs developed since 2012, through which more than 1,200 graduates have been trained. University President Noureddine Mouaddib described the cooperation as a way to strengthen links between university education and the business world while supporting professional skills development. Hakim Tazi and Kacem Bennani-Smires were also identified among the speakers participating in the signing ceremony.
Business continuity as a central objective
The project emphasizes three stated priorities: structuring governance, professionalizing boards and preparing continuity between generations. These areas give the partnership a scope extending beyond the study of formal rules. They focus attention on how responsibilities are organized, how decisions are reached and how a family business can prepare for the transfer of its activities and governance arrangements from one generation to another.
IEF-Maroc presented figures indicating that family businesses account for 93% of Morocco’s entrepreneurial fabric, 65% of employment and 60% of national value added. The figures illustrate the significance that the organization attributes to this category of company in the Moroccan economy. They should, however, be read as figures supplied by IEF-Maroc, because the reviewed information provides neither an underlying methodology nor an independently audited dataset.
Practical details still to be announced
The available information establishes the partnership’s duration, the institutions involved, the certificate’s structure, its principal subjects and the groups for whom it is intended. It does not specify the first cohort’s starting date, an application deadline, tuition, capacity, the admissions process or a detailed teaching calendar. Prospective participants will therefore need to await further announcements before making decisions based on those practical arrangements.
At this stage, the initiative is a cooperation and training framework with clearly stated goals, but its effects cannot yet be measured. It would be premature to claim an impact on company survival, employment or economic output. Its currently verifiable contribution lies in combining complementary expertise and establishing a dedicated learning pathway addressing the governance needs identified for Morocco’s family-business community.
