Moroccan billionaire Aziz Akhannouch leaves office after five years as prime minister

Moroccan billionaire Aziz Akhannouch formally left office on Saturday after five years as head of government, handing power to Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, the first woman to lead a Moroccan government.

The two met at the head of government's headquarters in Rabat for a handover ceremony, where they reviewed major files and projects in progress, including social programs, the economy and the running of public administration, according to an official statement. They agreed to keep up the pace of work in line with the directives of King Mohammed VI.

In a message posted on his personal social media accounts later that day, Akhannouch thanked the king for his trust and guidance and described leading the government as a great honor. He said he was leaving with pride and a clear conscience, while conceding that not everything he planned had been done. "There are other things I would have wished to accomplish," he wrote. He congratulated El Mansouri and wished her ministers success.

Akhannouch, 65, is the controlling shareholder of Akwa Group, the Casablanca-based conglomerate his father co-founded in 1932. Its Afriquia brand runs Morocco's largest network of fuel stations, and the group also has interests in liquefied petroleum gas, industrial gases, media and property. Akhannouch and his family are worth about $1.6 billion, the second-largest fortune in Morocco after that of banker Othman Benjelloun.

A new government without his party

King Mohammed VI swore in El Mansouri's 32-member cabinet on Friday at the Royal Palace in Rabat, and the new government held its first meeting on Saturday. She is due to present its program to a joint session of both houses of parliament on Monday. The House of Representatives must approve it by an absolute majority before the government is formally invested.

The cabinet is built on a coalition of El Mansouri's Authenticity and Modernity Party, known as PAM, the nationalist Istiqlal Party, the Socialist Union of Popular Forces and the Party of Progress and Socialism. The four parties hold a majority in the 395-seat House of Representatives.

Akhannouch's National Rally of Independents, which led the government after winning the 2021 election, is not part of it. The party finished second in the Sept. 23 vote with 66 seats, down from 102 five years earlier, and is moving into opposition.

Several ministers from the previous government kept their jobs, including Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit. Fouzi Lekjaa, the former budget minister who also heads the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, was promoted to minister of economy and finance.

From agriculture to the top job

Akhannouch served as agriculture minister from 2007 to 2021 before King Mohammed VI appointed him head of government in September 2021. When he took the post, he said he would withdraw from all management roles in the family holding company, including equity and securities management, even though the law did not require it.

His time in office was shadowed by questions about the overlap between his government role and his family's business. Afriquia stations were among the targets of a consumer boycott in 2018, and fuel prices became a central line of attack against his government after they jumped in 2022. He also faced criticism after a consortium that included Afriquia Gaz, Akwa's listed gas distribution unit, won the contract in November 2023 to build a desalination plant in Casablanca worth about 6.5 billion dirhams ($662 million). Questioned in parliament in December 2024, Akhannouch said the contract had gone through an open tender and that the project received no state subsidies.

In January, Akhannouch said he would not seek a third term as leader of his party and would not run in the legislative elections. "Leadership is not an inheritance," he said at the time. Mohamed Chaouki succeeded him as party president in February.