Africa Leaders Magazine

Dr MOHAMED ANOUAR JAMALI – CEO, OCP AFRICA

MOHAMED ANOUAR JAMALI - CEO, OCP AFRICA - African Leaders Magazine

Following an academic career in Canada and Japan, Mr. Jamali returned to Morocco in 2009, where he held the position of Director of Research and Development and International Relations at ESITH, an Engineering School affiliated with the Textile and Clothing Industries Association (AMITH).

Between 2015 and 2018, as a member of the SNTL Group’s Executive Board, he served as Managing Director of Tamayuz Supply Chain, the pole of Innovation and Excellence of the Group, and then CEO of the ‘Logdev Africa’ sector.

In 2018, Mr. Jamali joined Mohamed VI Polytechnic UM6P University as Director of the Africa Initiative and Director of the Institute of Science Technology and Innovation (ISTI).

Mr. A. Jamali holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Laval University in Canada and a Ph.D. in Management Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Dr. A. Jamali has led numerous collaborative research and innovation projects in Logistics and Supply Chain, supported by the World Bank, the Islamic Bank for Development BID, the European Commission, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Mr. Jamali is a husband and a father of two sons.

The internal reorganization of the Moroccan phosphate giant continues. Started at the beginning of the year with the creation of four departments around the boss, Mostafa Terrab, the change within the group’s staff now affects its subsidiary dedicated to the African continent, OCP Africa.

Following a board meeting held on September 18, the company, present in 16 African countries, announced the appointment of Mohamed Anouar Jamali as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing Karim Lotfi Senhadji.

MOHAMED ANOUAR JAMALI - CEO, OCP AFRICA - African Leaders Magazine

From academia

For observers of the fertilizer sector, this change of boss at the head of OCP Africa is not a surprise, it was only delayed by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which upset the timetable for the reorganization initiated. early 2020.

In March, our specialized information feed, Jeune Afrique Business + , indeed gave the leader on the departure, possibly on the way to take the direction of Safco International General Trading, the trading subsidiary of the group in Geneva. Information, however, not confirmed by the Moroccan group.

What is more surprising is the profile of the new CEO. Holder of a double doctorate – in management science from the Catholic University of Louvain and in supply chain management from Laval University – Mohamed Anouar Jamali has spent most of his career in the academic world: professor in Quebec for almost ten years, then, back in Casablanca, R&D and international relations director of the National School of Textile and Clothing Industries (ESITH) for almost six years, and, since 2018, director of the “Africa Initiative” of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University , another subsidiary of the OCP group.

Bringing African projects to fruition

If his career includes a stint in industry at the National Transport and Logistics Company (SNTL) – at the head of the “Tamayuz Supply Chain” innovation center and then of the Logdev Africa subsidiary -, he has nothing to do with the commercial and industrial profile of its two predecessors.

Fertilizer: OCP, what strategy in Africa?

Tarik Choho, the first boss of OCP Africa, arrived at the creation of the company in February 2016 but only stayed eight months, had more than eighteen years’ experience with the French nuclear group Areva. As for Karim Lotfi Senhadji, who remained in office for almost four years, he is a former pilot converted into a management controller who joined OCP in 2010.

With Mohamed Anouar Jamali, the boss of OCP, Mostafa Terrab, therefore seems to be playing a more political card by choosing a good connoisseur of Africa and a profile capable of bringing development projects to fruition on the continent – essential element for years of the philosophy and strategy of the Moroccan phosphate giant.

MOHAMED ANOUAR JAMALI - CEO, OCP AFRICA - African Leaders Magazine

Seesaw performance

However, the new boss will also have commercial and financial objectives to meet, namely the increase in fertilizer sales and the timely delivery of ammonia or phosphate fertilizer production plant projects, in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ghana.

However, if the projects in progress do not seem to be suffering from delays for the moment, the results in terms of sales are mixed, due to increased competition on the continent, in particular from the Russian PhosAgro and the Saudi Maaden. While Africa accounted for 27% of all OCP sales in 2017, this proportion fell to 21% in 2018 before rising to 24% in 2019, according to the group’s consolidated annual results. And, as of June 30, 2020, it was again 21%.

MOHAMED ANOUAR JAMALI - CEO, OCP AFRICA - African Leaders Magazine

Despite the sharp drop in prices, OCP maintains its results at breakeven in 2019

Above all, the value of OCP’s sales in Africa rose from 6.8 billion dirhams in 2017 (around 600 million euros) to 5.2 billion in 2018 (around 470 million euros) to climb back painfully to 5 9 billion in 2019 (approximately 546 million euros), an uneven performance, far from the expected take-off.

It is with these data and in a nevertheless positive context of rising world fertilizer prices that Mohamed Anouar Jamali enters the scene to deploy the strategy combining commercial growth and development projects of OCP on the continent.

 

 

source: jeuneafrique.com / theafricaceoforum.com

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