In Togo, the ministry of infrastructures plans to rehabilitate or build regional directorates of public works and sectors, as well as the rural roads directorate.

Leveraging a credit line falling under the 2018 State budget, the ministry seeks to hire a contractor who will carry out technical studies and elaborate bidding documents for targeted works. 

The ministry has in this regard addressed registered youths and women-entrepreneurs active in technical studies sector. This aligns with the government’s decision to set aside 20% of procurements to this group of individuals.

Overall, 31 entrepreneurs are called to bid to the tender. Tenders documents is grouped in a single lot. According to well-informed sources, the hired consultant will be chosen based on the quality of its services and the value of its offer.

For 2018, provisional amount of procurements reserved for this group of entrepreneurs is CFA40 billion.

Séna Akoda

Subsequent to the recent adoption of the new land code, the government redefined attributions of the ministry of urbanism and housing.

The new code contains 736 articles and aims to improve land laws tackling speculation and expropriation, and solve the issue of dual registration of a single property, as well as that regarding construction in flooded areas and sell-off of rural lands.

In this regard, the government indeed had to ensure that the ministry of urbanism had an “appropriate organizational and operational framework, allowing the implementation of the new code’s provisions” to satisfy both the people and investors (local and foreign).

Adopted by the parliament last June 14, the new land code takes into account socio-economic and cultural transformations happening in Togo. It also recommends a battery of innovative and fair solutions to develop the agricultural sector.

On July 24th, Togo’s parliament adopted a bill to promote power generation from clean sources. This is in line  with the government’s 2018-2030 electrification strategy under which it plans to bring renewables’ share in the country’s energy mix to 50%.

The new bill will surely help boost investment in clean energies, but also efficiently tackle various challenges related to generation, commercialization and use of clean energy.

The present law sets a global legal framework to implement clean energy projects, be it for local consumption or export. “The government is quite satisfied of the parliament’s decision as this law will help it move from theory to action and implement strategic axes of the new national electrification plan,” said André Johnson, the minister of environment and forest resources.

Under Togo’s plan to provide access to reliable, modern energy for all by 2030, 300 mini solar plants are to be set via private-public partnerships, hydropower dams are to be built and 550,000 households are to be provided with solar kits. The new bill, authorities believe, will greatly contribute to the concretization of these various goals.

“Today’s vote will support the implementation of our energy strategy which is based, among others, on clean energy development, namely solar and hydropower, as well as on environmental protection, in line with the sustainable development goal 7 (SDG7). Indeed, this goal aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all,” Johnson said after the adoption.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

All deputies adopted on June 5, 2018, the new land code, thus replacing the former which was passed 40 years ago. This will help resolve the many related conflicts currently pending in court – more than 70% of all pending conflicts to be exact.

The new bill breaks down into 736 articles which set the foundations for a more modern institutional land management framework. With it, it will be easy for any rightful owner to defend their property.

The new code takes into consideration both socio-economic and cultural challenges recorded in Togo, correcting inconsistencies inherited from the previous code. The document aims at making land transactions safer, but also tackles land speculation and expropriation.

Moreover, it proposes a battery of innovative answers to foster agricultural development, and boost State’s revenues through the establishment of a single land desk. More importantly, the code aims to deal with multiple registration of one land, construction in flood-prone areas, sell-off of rural lands, and attract foreign investors.

“This new land code is a tool that is much adapted to current realities. It should enable judges to better handle related conflicts preventing multiple sales and other cases that end up in courts,” said Dama Dramani, president of the National Assembly.

Let’s highlight that with the new code, the operational stage of MCC’s Threshold program which land sector is to benefit from, will begin. The latter will first be implemented in five pilot towns.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Ensuring road safety through the respect of the Highway Code. That is the major adventure on which the Togolese ministry of transports and infrastructures recently embarked on.

Mid-May, an interministerial decree to reduce costs of motorbike (two and three tires) driving licences was adopted to ensure that motorcyclists conform to traffic regulations.  

From CFA10000, the cost of an A1 license (2 and 3 tires bike) was halved to CFA5000.

Let it be noted that in Togo, 73% of registered vehicles are bikes. However, only 2% of motorcyclists have a license. Not a surprise then seeing that they are involved in most road accidents (76% of accident cases in 2017).

To reverse this trend, a training session was launched for motorcyclists last Tuesday in Lomé, and actually about 30 drivers are attending the session.

Under the training, they are taught about the importance of a driving license, knowledge of Highway Code, and most importantly moral and civic behavior to adopt while on the road.  

The initiative is led by the ministry of transport and it aligns with the SDG 3 which aims to decrease by 50% deaths and injuries caused by road accidents, by 2020. 

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Property transfer delay was at eight days average over the first quarter of 2018. This is against 20 days a year earlier. The reduction results from efforts made by Togolese authorities to improve business climate and attract more private investments.

In detail, this delay was at 9, 7 and 10 days in January, February and March 2018 respectively. The average for the period exceeds the expectation of the Revenue Office (OTR), knowingly 15 days for the whole year. At this pace, Togo could be close to Rwanda which is the leader in regard to property transfer delay, in Africa, with a duration of 7 days.

As mentioned earlier, the remarkable performances are attributable to the fact that the former directorate of the land and cadastral affairs (DADC) got additional equipment and staff, paired with the dematerialization of processes, and the creation of a property transfer bureau (to speed up issuance of related titles).

Besides that, many tax incentives have also been implemented since the beginning of 2018, such as: property registration fees and stamp duties were reduced by 3%, down to 6.3% in accordance with the government’s 2018 finance bill.

Moreover, to boost transparency, data related to land titles and cadastral map were made freely accessible to all, on the website of the DADC which is now attached to the OTR.

Togo, let’s recall, had dematerialized 46,342 land deeds at the end of March 2018. This out of a total of 46,833 deeds issued by then.

This a major achievement for the country’s land sector which could become one of the best performance in sub-Saharan Africa, considering that it will benefit from the MCA’s threshold program recently approved, and the imminent passing of a new land code by parliament.

Back to property transfer delay, according to the Doing Business, it assesses time needed by a firm or person to buy a property from a third party (seller) and transfer this property under its own name, as it could subsequently use it as guarantee to secure loans from lenders or exploit it in simple terms.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

To mitigate loan risk, Togo’s government has just amended the law n°2016-005 of March 14, 2016, for the regulation of credit information bureaus (CIBs) within the West African Monetary Union (WAEMU).

In a council of ministers last Tuesday, the newly amended bill aims to obtain information on loan takers to assess their credibility, provided the client gives their approval. However, article 53 of this law indicates that “obligation to have client’s approval does not apply to those that took a loan before the law was enacted”.

Effective adoption of this law “will allow banks, microfinance institutions, decentralized financial systems (DFS) and any other financial institutions involved in sharing of information on loans or client history, to better assess loan risk, and subsequently lower loan cost”.

Moreover, the bill would help improve business climate in Togo and its rating by global entities such as Doing Business and MCC.  

Commenting on the decision, Sandra Ablamba Johnson, Advisor of the President and coordinator of the Business Climate Cell, said: In WAEMU, “only Côte d’Ivoire reached a 4% quota in 2017 implementing similar measures, according to the Doing Business report. By replicating the experience, we will increase our database allowing banks and financial institutions to provide loans at reasonable rates especially with the implementation of our New Development Plan which will have Togolese private sector as the main actor. One of the major projects falling under this plan is the agricultural transformation project in line with TIRSAL”.

Séna Akoda

In line with the fight against money laundering and terrorism funding, Togolese deputies adopted on April 24, a bill that among others, forces users to get approval from customs to move out or into the country a sum of more than CFA15 million cash, by road, air or sea.

This would enable customs to have enough information on destinations of cash moved by traders or other individuals, in the case it exceeds the set reference. Besides, it could push those unwilling to go through custom formalities to opt for bank wiring which can also be traced.

Regarding the latter, the newly passed bill urges lenders to enhance their monitoring and verification processes before any fund transfer. This, also to tackle money laundering.

According to news website Republic Of Togo, the bill would more generally enhance capacities of the national cell for financial data processing (CENTIF). It aligns with WAEMU’s strategy to fight money laundering and terrorism funding.

Séna Akoda

As reforms to improve Togo’s business climate are still being implemented, “one of the medium-term objectives of the government” is to establish commercial courts. This is revealed in a document from the Business Climate Cell.

According to this source, in the long run, the project should lead to the specialization of civil and commercial jurisdictions, at the institutional level, into first instance and appeal courts. Once materialized, the reform would help respond to an issue pointed out by business holders, which is: legal and judicial security.

In effect, from first instance to conflict solving between economic operators, the latter want to have the assurance that their case will be handled by a competent judge, who solely deals with business-related cases.

Togo, let’s recall, already set commercial chambers that solely take care of commercial conflicts ; the nation even has special commercial chambers for cases involving minor amounts.

Séna Akoda

It is now possible, the business climate cell (CCA) revealed, for a litigant to track how his or her business case is handled at the Lomé Appeal Court.

To do so, the litigant can either seek the relevant information via SMS by texting his case’s roll number to 93 55 98 30, or he can do that online by going to www.chambrescommerciales.tg/documentations.

The new reform will boost transparency with regards to business case management. It will also save time to litigant since he or she would no longer need to move in person to obtain information.

Commercial chambers, let’s recall, were created to handle commercial conflicts, rapidly and efficiently, thus contributing to the improvement of business climate. As a result, business cases were separated from civil cases and a clerk was appointed to take care of each, separately.

To the same end, special commercial chambers were also established. Their responsibility however is to exclusively manage conflicts involving amounts ranging from zero to one million CFA.

Séna Akoda