Business software firm SAP is increasingly eyeing Morocco as a key African delivery centre owing to the country's proximity to Europe.

This is according to SAP Africa chief executive officer Pfungwa Serima, speaking to ITWeb Africa on the sidelines of the SAPPHIRE NOW 2014 business software conference in Orlando, Florida this week.

Last month, SAP announced that Moroccan city Casablanca is the new headquarters for the French African SAP territory, which is a merging of West and Central African French-speaking countries and the French speaking Maghreb nations. Serima, in turn, oversees this territory.

And he told ITWeb Africa that SAP employs around 20 people in Morocco.

“We expect that number to grow, in particular when we start looking at Morocco as an alternative delivery centre for both Africa as well as Europe, so it will become a nearshore destination for SAP,” Serima told ITWeb Africa.

“It’s one of a few of what we call leading countries that we’re looking at,” Serima told ITWeb Africa.

Earlier this year, SAP officials told ITWeb Africa that the company is looking to certify data centre partners in Africa for the first time.

No official announcement regarding where the data centres will be and who the partners are has been made yet.

But Serima told ITWeb Africa that SAP is looking to Morocco as both a “data centre and workforce” centre for the company.

Speaking more broadly about SAP’s African operations, Serima hinted at a ramping up of activities.

Currently, SAP employs about 700 people in Africa

“But again, to be honest with you, we will definitely most likely double that in the next few years, as part of our growth plan,” Serima said.

“There will be some announcement that we’ll make in August,” Serima added.