So much anticipated by notaries, e-commerce promoters, public administrations and the Centre for Business Formalities, digital signature is finally effective. Indeed, this is subsequent to the adoption of a decree, last Wednesday, on digital transactions and services in Togo.

The decree which looks at other key elements found in the bill on digital transactions, comes to reinforce Togo’s legal framework in this regard.

Issues discussed while the bill was adopted are related to conditions to acknowledge legally, digital signatures and certificates from other nations ; operating conditions for trust service providers ; information that will be provided to clients on the person behind any given e-commerce ; information to be provided to the general public by online public communication editors ; data likely to enable identification of any individual that has contributed to creation of content for service providers ; and to certifying authority.

Digital signature should ease exchange of documents and information between public administration and help save a lot of time in processing.

Besides its evident benefit for e-commerce, this new technology will surely have a significant effect on business formalization, especially since it is now possible for anyone who desires to do so, to create his or her business online.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Business creation in Togo has yet reached another milestone. Indeed, after government reduced various procedures and delay related to the process, it is now possible to create a business online.

Announced since January this year, digitalization of the process effectively took shape in February. This reform falls under a set of measures aiming to improve business climate in Togo and increase Togo’s ranking in the Doing Business report.

In effect, required documentation will be submitted on the website of the centre for business formalities, CFE.  The institution’s single desk will be the only accredited structure to process the documents. According to authorities, this will still be done in 24-hours and could improve further.

Moreover, CFE is determined to further shorten delay to obtain creation card, which is currently 24-hours.

All these measures aim at boosting business formalization. More should follow however. Recently for example, President Faure Gnassingbé promised 20% of public procurements for youths, in order to make the private sector growth’s driver.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Nine days. That is how many days, on average, was needed to complete property transfer in January 2018. Abbi Toyi, director of cadaster and domain affairs (DADC) said in an interview with Togo First on Friday March 9.

According to a document provided by his office, transfer requests are processed in 1-21 days, but much more between 3-8 days.

The feat can be attributed to the reinforcement of technicalities and staff, rising digitization and association of DADC and OTR.

“Today, we have enough manpower”, Toyi said, promising to keep the average delay under 15 days this year, from 20 days last year. 

Besides these achievements which should further improve in days to come, the official attributes the shortening of transfer delay to authorities’ will to improve business climate in order to attract more investments.

Regarding the latter, he added that by 2020, if reforms are pursued, Togo could beat nations like Rwanda in terms of property transfer. Rwanda, according to the Doing Business, is the number two in Africa in this ranking.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

During the recent ministers’ council held on March 7, 2018, a bill for a new land and State property code was adopted. This is as previous laws were outdated causing a rise in the number of land-related conflicts.

The new bill should thus help “handle the consequences of strong land pressures caused by a rapid growth of population”. In addition, it will also allow to “satisfy requirements of sustainable growth in Togo, without tearing the country’s social fabric” and even “tackle shortcomings of land governance in order to promote social peace and make the economy more attractive”.

Knowing that land management is one of the major challenges to Togo’s emergence and the implementation of an efficient construction policy for social housing, the upcoming reform is quite opportune.

It will also facilitate the implementation of a national agricultural strategy that will foster the development of agriculture which is the economy’s main driving force.

In the long run, it will improve land management making it more efficient and sustainable, in line with objectives announced in 2009 by African Union’s Heads of States.

The launching ceremony for the new commercial chamber solely dedicated to solving conflicts involving small receivables (ranging from zero to 1 million CFA) took place on Feb. 27, 2018. This chamber was established at the end of 2017 by order of the chairman of Lomé’s tribunal.

The goal of this chamber is to speed up processing of affairs related to small receivables. “We wish for these cases (those involving sums ranging between 0 and CFA1,000,000) not to be delayed anymore due to more complex ones,” said the Tribunal’s chairman.

“We also thought it would be good to separate cases involving minor sums from those involving big sums. This would give more time to the three ordinary commercial chambers and their head judges to focus on more complex cases…”, he added.

The new chamber would in the long run reassure investors regarding legal security in business, and would subsequently attract them.

What is most interesting with this new institution is how easy it is to appeal to it. Indeed, with or without request, any complainant can reach out to the court.

The latter, let’s recall, is run by two judges and holds its audiences on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at the Lomé court.

It will be easier now for Togolese people to get connected to the national power grid. Indeed, Togo’s power utility, Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET), has enabled payment in tranches (over six months) for connection fees while this amount was expected to be paid fully initially.

The move is part of a set of technical and commercial reforms engaged by CEET to improve populations’ access to power services as well business climate in the country. In this framework, the utility has also reduced connection delay for new medium-voltage customers, from 66 days to 28 days. However, this period can extend to 42 days if a transformer substation needs to be built.

Also, connection fees were slashed by 30% in order to provide quality services and satisfy medium-voltage customers.

Under reforms established by the government to improve business climate in the country, access to land-related information has been democratized for all.

The announcement came from top officials at the State Domains and Cadaster Office (DADC), on Feb. 21, 2018. This was on the first day of the training and exchange session between press actors and the Business Climate Cell.  

The new measure, the officials said, should improve transparency in land management and also help reduce land conflicts significantly.

Truly, by having access to information regarding a specific land, potential buyers can quickly check if the seller is the property’s legal owner.

This would avoid conflict, in the event the land has already been sold to another person.

To have free access to land information, interested individuals are to pay CFA2000 which correspond to research fees. However, regarding land maps, related information is free to access.

Soon, it will be possible to sign documents digitally at a notary’s office in Togo. This was revealed yesterday by the new president of the chamber of notaries of Togo, while he was assuming office.

The new measure is a significant milestone in dematerializing processes and it should save both notaries and their clients a lot of time with paperwork.

While it aims mainly to improve quality of service provided to clients, the initiative should also tackle the issue of low activity resulting from the various incentives recently initiated by the government to improve the country’s business environment. Indeed, the reforms which include tax reliefs, cancellation of registration fee when creating a company and reduction of property transfer fees, are threading on notaries’ toes. 

However, with electronic signature, notaries across the country will be able to save their costs.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

As promised by President Faure Gnassingbé, the government has adopted Feb. 1, 2018, a decree stating regulatory provisions regarding the awarding of part of public procurements to youth and women. “Each contracting authority is to set aside at least 20% of procurements under its plan for public procurements to the Togolese youth (18 to 40 years old) and entrepreneur-women (no age limit) operating in the country,” reads the decree.
The measures, which might appears as positive discrimination, is driven by a need to favor youth and women, who are the most affected by unemployment and poverty in the society.
Another detail of interest to these groups of the society is the possibility to increase the fixed proportion, based on assessment and request of the ministry of economy and finances.
The decree highlights that youth and women, engaged in an enterprise, will benefit from simplified procedures for quotation request and restricted tenders with advertisement.
In the long run, the measure should produce “efficient answers to unemployment and improve living standards of youth and women”, the decree concludes.