ABSTRACT
Drawing on extensive field research conducted in rural and urban Morocco, this chapter looks closely at two emblematic episodes in the course of Morocco's microcredit crisis. The first episode involves the bankruptcy of the flagship of the Moroccan microcredit sector, microcredit institution Zakoura. The second looks at a social movement that emerged against microcredit. While the official discourse was clearly against defaulters, in practice because of a threat of contagion in the context of the Arabic Spring, legal actions were weak in enforcing repayment. In Morocco, the microcredit sector also faced a wave of collective resistance in the form of widespread credit delinquency by microcredit borrowers. The paroxysm of the crisis happened right after the decision that another microcredit association would take over Foundation Zakoura. Branches and field staff were encouraged to increase their portfolios even though, for cultural and economic reasons, the population showed relative reluctance to access microcredit.
