Morocco has launched an ambitious national project to digitize its Civil Registry system across all prefectures and provinces, with a total investment of 194 million dirhams (approximately $19.4 million). The initiative aims to convert over a century of paper-based records into a secure, modern database, accessible to all citizens.
The Directorate General of Territorial Communities (DGCT), under the Ministry of the Interior, announced the project through an international tender. The primary goal is to digitize more than 38 million records dating back to 1915, when the civil registry was first established in the country. These records are currently housed in 1,821 offices spread across Morocco’s ten regions.
The digitization process will be carried out in two stages. The first phase will focus on 27 million paper records that have not been previously digitized, involving manual data entry, numbering, and verification. The second phase will target 11 million existing digital records, which will undergo auditing, indexing, and security enhancements.
Priority will be given to birth records from 1950 onward and death records from 2003, which are in high demand and have significant administrative relevance. The project’s overarching aim is to create a centralized database linking all civil registry offices into a unified system. This will allow real-time data sharing between public institutions, improving administrative efficiency, service delivery, and contributing to the broader digital transformation of Morocco’s public sector.
The tender is divided into five geographical lots, each with its own budget and deadline for submission. The regions covered include Fez-Meknès, Marrakech-Safi, Southern regions, Beni Mellal-Jenifra and Draa-Tafilalet, and Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, with the largest lot allocated to Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima and the Eastern region.
This initiative is part of broader efforts to modernize Morocco’s public services. In 2023, the country implemented Decree No. 2.22.04, which introduced electronic pre-declarations for births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Other recent digitization efforts include the introduction of digital children’s medical records and the expansion of an electronic platform to promote entrepreneurship and create 3,000 start-ups by 2030.
