(Togo First) - Over the past few years, Togo has improved significantly in regards to its socioeconomic policies and institutional framework. This was disclosed in the World Bank’s latest Country Policy and Institutional Assessment in Africa report (CPIA).

Togo improves while Africa stagnates

While other countries on the continent stagnate, Togo has again, after reaching the average in sub-Saharan Africa in 2017, improved its score on the CPIA in 2018, by introducing more reforms (Doing Business, Mo Ibrahim Index, MCC). Togo excluded, only eight countries (against nine in 2017) have had their score rise in 2018, whereas 60% of economies maintained the same score.

This is thus the second consecutive year where Togo, with a score of 3.2 points (+0.1), improves its CPIA score.

A feat it owes to the reinforcement of its “public debt management and strategy,” reforms to improve business regulation environment (ease to do business), and those that “improved transparency, reduced paperwork and led to a better cost-efficiency in property transfer,” said the Bretton Woods institution.

A better debt profile, business climate and governance

Togo is the only country in Africa to have upped its score under the public debt management and policy criterion, according to the World Bank which added that “streamlining budget helped improve debt ratios,” pulling down public debt from 75.6% of GDP to 74.1%, while domestic debt fell by more than 5% compared to end-2017. 

Moreover, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire, are the only two nations to have improved their score for the business regulation environment criterion. The latter, let’s note, assesses the legal, regulatory and policy environment affecting private businesses, by evaluating rules impacting the launching or ceasing of activity, competition, ongoing commercial operations, land and work contracts.

“Côte d’Ivoire and Togo have implemented six reforms and are among the best ten reformers, according to Doing Business,” said the World Bank.

In regards to governance, only nine countries improved their score in 2018. “The increase in scores of Côte d’Ivoire and Togo reflect the improvement of a governance structure based on rules where property and contract rights are applied and protected.”

For Togo for example, ownership transfer in 2018 required five procedures (against 6.2 in sub-Saharan Africa). A complete transfer process took 84 days (against 183 the year before) in the country, against an average of 53.9 days across the SSA region. The operation cost 5.9% of the good’s value (9.2% in 2017 and 7.6% in SSA).

Regarding contract execution, another Doing Business index, the World Bank reports that on average, for a contract to be executed through the legal system, it took 488 days in Togo (compared to 655.1 days in SSA) and it cost 47.5% of the claim value (42.3% in SSA) in 2018. 

All these positive changes are to be attributed to the Togolese business climate cell, which through various reforms, works to improve Togo’s image in the CPIA report.

Still room for improvement

From 2008 to 2018, Togo’s CPIA score grew by 0.5 points, as a result of improvements in economic management, policies tackling social exclusion and fostering equity, and public institutions management. However, structural policies stagnated over the past decade.  

Also, the country still lags behind some of its WAEMU neighbors such as Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger. In Africa and the world, Rwanda has the highest score, knowingly four.

Let’s indicate that since 1980, CPIA scores are used to determine how IDA resources are allocated to the world’s poorest nations. They also help assess African countries’ progress and compare them to other IDA nations.

Fiacre E. Kakpo