CasablancaMoroccoEnergy & Distribution
Ali Wakrim
Afriquia Gaz
Vice-Chairman
Akwa Group
A Moroccan businessman who chairs Afriquia Gaz and serves as vice-chairman of Akwa Group — the second generation of a family partnership that has been building Morocco’s fuel, gas and distribution infrastructure since 1959.
01 — The position held
Casablanca
Offices
Two chairs, one continuous business.
Ali Wakrim chairs Afriquia Gaz, the liquefied petroleum gas company listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, and holds the vice-chairmanship of Akwa Group, the holding company that sits above it. The two roles describe a single working life: the operating company his family built, and the group that grew around it.
He is a graduate of the Université de Pau in south-west France, and lives and works in Casablanca. The full profile sets out the background in detail.
Directorships as recorded in public company filings and market directories. A fuller register of mandates appears on the Insights page.
02 — The register
Published figuresFour dates and figures that place the work in proportion.
Every number on this site is drawn from a published source and attributed. Where a figure could not be verified, it is not shown.
Afriquia incorporated in Casablanca by Haj Ahmed Wakrim and Ahmed Ould Hadj Akhannouch.
Akwa Group corporate historyAfriquia Gaz admitted to the Casablanca Stock Exchange in April.
Casablanca Stock ExchangeShare of the Moroccan LPG filling and distribution market held by Afriquia Gaz in 2009, on sales of 801,356 tonnes.
Afriquia Gaz, 2009Afriquia Gaz revenue for the 2021 financial year; net income of 503.86 million dirhams.
Company results, 2021themes
Long horizons, physical assets, and a partnership that outlived its founders.
Four ideas run through the record of Ali Wakrim’s working life. They are drawn from what the companies have actually done over six decades rather than from statements of intent.
Infrastructure before opportunity
Storage terminals, filling plants, depots and port capacity were built ahead of the demand that would use them — a 286,000 cubic metre storage facility acquired as early as 1962, a Tanger Med terminal concession won in 2008.
Partnership as an institution
The Wakrim and Akhannouch families have held the business together across two generations, formalising it as Akwa Holding in 1993 rather than dividing it.
Listed discipline
Afriquia Gaz and Maghreb Oxygène are quoted companies. Publishing audited accounts to the market is a different discipline from running a private family firm, and the family chose it.
Widening the base
From hydrocarbons into industrial gases, publishing, retail, property, hospitality and, from 2015, renewable generation through the Green of Africa venture.
04 — Journey, in brief
1959 – presentSix decades, told in four moments.
The full chronology sets out the founding partnership, the second-generation handover, the listing, and the group’s widening interests.
The partnership is incorporated
Haj Ahmed Wakrim and Ahmed Ould Hadj Akhannouch, brothers-in-law, incorporate Afriquia SMDC in Casablanca, building on fuel trading that had begun in the 1930s.
Gas becomes its own company
The group is restructured and its gas activities are transferred into Afriquia Gaz.
The second generation takes charge
The business is reorganised as Akwa Holding under Aziz Akhannouch and Ali Wakrim.
Chairmanship of Afriquia Gaz
The board adopts Ali Wakrim’s nomination as chairman on 7 November 2007, following Aziz Akhannouch’s resignation from the chair.