Togo inaugurates its first integrated industrial platform
Monday, 07 June 2021 16:01 
(Togo First) - On Sunday, June 6th, Faure Gnassingbé, the Togolese President, inaugurated the country’s first industrial platform, PIA. The ceremony took place less than a year after construction work started.
Developed over nearly 400 hectares, in Adetikopé (15 km north of Lomé), the platform materializes a new development vision: “to produce more locally, and be more competitive in international markets.” The project comes as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is in the pipeline; it was carried out by Arise IIP (under a partnership based on Gabon’s Nkok model).
According to its promoters, the PIA aims to create high added value chains (especially in the textile sector), supply raw materials, manufacture on-site, and export finished products. The site includes an industrial zone, a park that can accommodate 12,500 containers, a storage platform for cotton and other agricultural commodities, a truck terminal, and an area of 200,000 m2 dedicated to other logistics activities.
It also has its waste treatment plant, a police station, a firefighter casern, and a single administrative desk, regrouping all services and agencies (immigration, customs, business registration, among others). The latter makes it easier for businesses and investors to handle some paperwork.
Big ambitions
Gagan Gupta, chief of Arise IIP, unveiled major ambitions regarding the project: no longer export a single gram of raw cotton by 2023, produce tens of millions of units of towels, beds, and clothing within a few years via a domestic textile unit.
According to his projections, Togo’s exports should, in value, jump “from $75 million to about $1 billion, a 12-fold increase.” This would be “a first in such a short time on the continent,” adds Gagan Gupta.
Production, of soybeans, wood, marble, or electric engines, should also grow, indicated the investor. For the project, he mobilized nearly 130 billion CFA.
The PIA is expected to create 35,000 direct jobs in the next 4 years and millions (direct and indirect) by 2030.
Commenting on the project, the Prime Minister, Victoire Dogbé, said “it is a decisive turning point for the industrialization of the country.”
Octave Bruce
