Morocco runs a single national e-procurement portal, the Portail Marocain des Marchés Publics (marchespublics.gov.ma), operated by the Trésorerie Générale du Royaume (TGR). Under the current 2023 procurement decree, the entire procedure — publication of tender notices, download of tender files, submission of bids, bid opening, and award notification — is conducted electronically through this portal. A foreign company CAN bid directly on Moroccan public tenders without first creating a local subsidiary, but it must (1) register as a supplier ('fournisseur') on the portal, (2) obtain a Moroccan-approved electronic signature certificate to sign and submit its bid, and (3) accept a national-preference penalty of 15% that is applied to the bid price of companies not established in Morocco (obligatory for works and related studies, discretionary for supplies and services). Below certain thresholds tenders can be reserved for national companies only, and 30% of each buyer's annual budget is reserved for Moroccan SMEs. Because of the 15% penalty and the practical need for a local electronic-signature holder, most foreign firms bid via a joint venture (groupement) with a Moroccan partner or set up a local entity.
Portail Marocain des Marchés Publics (PMMP)
Trésorerie Générale du Royaume (TGR) — General Treasury of the Kingdom, Ministry of Economy and Finance
Foreign companies eligibleNo local entity required to bid
A local entity (Moroccan subsidiary) is NOT legally required for a foreign company to bid. Any company — Moroccan or foreign — that is in good standing with tax and social-security obligations may submit a bid, and the decree provides an explicit mechanism (Article 147) for evaluating bids from competitors 'not established in Morocco', which only makes sense because foreign, non-established firms are allowed to compete. HOWEVER, three practical constraints push most foreign bidders toward a local presence or local partner: (1) NATIONAL PREFERENCE — a 15% surcharge is added to the bid price of a company not established in Morocco when computing the comparison price; it is obligatory on works ('travaux') and related engineering studies and discretionary (buyer's option) on supplies and services. Establishing a Moroccan entity, or bidding as a groupement where the Moroccan member carries the qualifying share, reduces or eliminates this penalty. (2) RESERVED TENDERS — buyers may restrict a tender to national companies below certain estimated-value thresholds (reported as up to 10 million MAD for works and 1 million MAD for supplies/services), and 30% of annual budgets is reserved for Moroccan SMEs; a foreign firm with no local entity is shut out of those. (3) ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE — the mandatory Barid eSign certificate is issued only through Barid Al-Maghrib (Poste Maroc) agencies in Morocco, so a foreign firm in practice needs a local representative/correspondent to obtain and hold it. A human reviewer should confirm whether the decree formally requires foreign, non-established bidders to elect a domicile ('élection de domicile') or appoint a local/fiscal representative — this could not be pinned to a specific article from the primary text and is treated as UNCONFIRMED.
Verify your company can compete: bidders must not be in bankruptcy/liquidation and must be current on tax and social-security (CNSS) obligations. A foreign company provides home-country equivalents of the Moroccan attestations (e.g. a home-country tax-clearance certificate in place of the DGI attestation, and a home-country social-security certificate in place of the CNSS attestation). Documents issued abroad are typically legalised/apostilled and, where needed, translated. This standing is proven later via a sworn declaration on honour ('déclaration sur l'honneur') plus certificates in the administrative dossier.
Go to marchespublics.gov.ma and register through the enterprise/supplier space ('Espace fournisseur' / entreprise). Complete the inscription form with company identification and the legal representative's details, then activate the account from the confirmation email. Moroccan companies enter their ICE (Identifiant Commun de l'Entreprise) and RC number; a foreign company enters its equivalent home-country identifiers. Registration on the portal is free. Once registered you can search notices, download tender files ('dossiers d'appel d'offres') and set up alerts.
Electronic submission on the portal requires a valid probative-value electronic signature certificate. Barid Al-Maghrib (Poste Maroc) is the state-approved certification authority; its 'Barid eSign' Class-3 certificate is used to sign bid documents. Under the 2023 electronic-signature order, each document must be signed individually. The certificate is issued only through Barid Al-Maghrib agencies in Morocco after an in-person identity check, so a FOREIGN company generally needs a local representative/correspondent to complete the process on its behalf using the company documents. Reported cost is roughly 450 MAD (about EUR 45) for one year; issuance takes about 5–10 business days. (Damanesign is cited as an alternative provider.)
Assemble the three dossiers required by the tender file (règlement de consultation): the administrative dossier (déclaration sur l'honneur, tax attestations/DGI, CNSS attestation, commercial registry/RC, and the provisional guarantee/'cautionnement provisoire' if required by the tender), the technical dossier (company references, human and material resources, qualification/classification certificates where the sector requires them), and the financial offer (the signed 'acte d'engagement' plus a detailed price schedule / bordereau des prix). A foreign firm substitutes home-country equivalents for the Moroccan attestations and may demonstrate equivalence where Moroccan sector qualifications (agréments/classification) are requested.
Log into the portal, attach the administrative, technical and financial dossiers to the tender, sign each document with the Barid eSign certificate, and submit the bid electronically before the closing date and time. The minimum time between publication and the deadline is set by the decree (commonly around 40 days for larger tenders). Bid opening, the award decision and notifications are then handled electronically on the portal. If awarded, the successful bidder submits the definitive guarantee and required post-award documents within the deadlines set by the decree/tender.
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Create free accountPortal registration on marchespublics.gov.ma: free. Barid eSign electronic signature certificate: approximately 450 MAD (~EUR 45) per year (a per-document signing model applies). A provisional guarantee (cautionnement provisoire) is a tender-specific amount set in each tender file. The 15% national-preference surcharge is not a fee but a bid-price penalty applied at evaluation to firms not established in Morocco. Costs for legalisation/apostille and translation of foreign documents are additional and vary.
10–30 days
Décret n° 2-22-431 du 15 chaabane 1444 (8 mars 2023) relatif aux marchés publics, published in Bulletin Officiel n° 7172 (9 March 2023), in force from 1 September 2023 (six months after publication). It abrogates and replaces the former Décret n° 2-12-349 du 20 mars 2013. The national-preference mechanism is set out in Article 147. Electronic submission and signature are governed by the decree and by implementing ministerial orders (notably Arrêté du ministre de l'Économie et des Finances n° 1692-23 on electronic exchange/signature). Barid Al-Maghrib (Poste Maroc) is the state-approved certification authority for probative-value electronic certificates (Barid eSign).
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This guide is grounded in official sources, last verified 2026-07-21.