D Long discussed but rarely measured through reliable statistics, the economic weight of family businesses is now beginning to be quantified. They are estimated to represent 92.9% of Morocco’s business fabric, provide nearly 65% of private-sector jobs, and contribute 60.5% of the country’s value added.Yet, only 5% of these businesses manage to reach the third generation.These are among the preliminary findings of a study presented on Thursday, June 4, in Casablanca by the Family Business Institute (IEF Morocco) under the title “The Real Weight of Family Businesses – The Invisible Side.”Conducted with the support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, the study provides, for the first time, a measurement of the economic significance of family businesses and highlights their central role in wealth creation, while also revealing their vulnerabilities in terms of governance and succession planning.The study’s authors stressed from the outset that these are preliminary findings that will be further enriched and consolidated.“A family business is not the concern of a few families. It is the concern of the entire economy; it is the concern of the country,” said Kacem Bennani-Smires, President of IEF Morocco, at the opening of the institute’s annual conference.“When a family business successfully passes from one generation to the next, an entire legacy of employment, investment, values, and expertise is transmitted. When it fails, it is not only a family that loses. A family business should not be measured solely by what it produces, but also by its ability to endure through generations. And that is undoubtedly what makes it unique.”More specifically, the 65% share of private-sector employment attributed to family businesses would represent approximately 6.3 million jobs.According to Cheikh-Oumar Sylla, IFC Regional Director for North Africa and the Horn of Africa, these figures primarily help quantify a reality long recognized by economic stakeholders.“Family businesses account for around 90% of companies in Morocco and absorb more than 65% of employment,” he recalled.In his view, the findings confirm the structural role family businesses play in the country’s economic dynamics and provide a natural foundation for stronger cooperation between IFC and IEF Morocco in support of entrepreneurship, employment, and economic growth. Family businesses are overwhelmingly concentrated in small-scale structures: 74% are small enterprises, compared with 18% medium-sized companies and only 7% large corporations.This finding raises a key question: Why do the majority of family businesses struggle to cross the growth thresholds required to become medium-sized enterprises and eventually large corporations?