Lomé will host the first ECOWAS Investment Forum (EIF) on April 4 and 5. The forum will be organized by the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID). Its theme is "Transforming ECOWAS communities in a challenging environment."

According to Ecofin Agency, the inauguration ceremony for the forum was held online on January 24. Key participants included the Togolese Minister of Economy, Sani Yaya, and the president of the EBID’s board of governors, Nialé Kaba. The upcoming forum is backed by Eximbank India.

The EIF will feature panel discussions, workshops, interactive sessions, and B2B meetings, and provide networking opportunities. It will also showcase various development models aimed at fostering family farming, strengthening food security, supporting SMEs, and investing in infrastructure.

The EBID currently seeks $1.48 billion for its 2021-2025 strategic plan, which aims to reduce investment deficit in the ECOWAS. The latter is estimated at $12 billion a year.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

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A delegation of Turkish investors met Togo’s Minister of Investment Promotion, Manuela Santos, on January 17. They were led by the Turkish Ambassador to Togo, Muteber Kiliç.

During the meeting, the Togolese side presented key projects falling under the country’s 2025 roadmap, with a focus on the following sectors: energy, agriculture, and manufacturing. The goal was to spark the Turkish delegation’s interest. 

Minister Santos took this opportunity to market Togo as a favorable destination for Turkish investors, as well as to discuss the strengthening of the Togo-Turkey relationship. Last year, the two partners signed an economic cooperation agreement and held a business day. 

Togo stopped importing frozen poultry, temporarily. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, this is to help local producers sell their products as they "are having trouble disposing of stocks of locally produced poultry meat". The ministry noted that more than 70 tons of poultry currency sit idle in the cold rooms of poultry abattoirs.

In a notice dated January 22, 2024, Minister of Agriculture Antoine Lekpa Gbegbeni explained that the pause aims to “foster local production and consumption”. “The embargo’s lifting will be conditional on ‘the exhaustion of outstanding locally-produced stock,” he added.

Besides bolstering local production and consumption, the temporary ban could revive the matter of supporting local producers' competitiveness against foreign competitors, especially relative to production costs.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

President Faure Gnassingbé was in Cinkassé, in the Savanes region, last Sunday, January 21. In a speech to the region’s soldiers, the Togolese leader promised to do everything to protect the people of the northern region against the rising terrorist threat. 

 "If Mandouri is not at peace, Togo is not at peace. If Cinkassé is not at peace, Togo is not at peace. We will do everything to protect you", Faure Gnassingbé promised, informing of the intensification of actions particularly in the prefectures of Cinkassé, Kpendjal, and Kpendjal-ouest.

Gnassingbé then urged the people of the region to support the government in its effort to fight back terrorists. "Don't sleep on your laurels. Remain alert, keep helping the Defense and Security Forces (FDS) and the administrative and political authorities, for it is together that we will preserve peace and security in the Savanes," he declared.

The Head of State also promised stronger actions to make concerned populations more resilient. 

"Whether in the areas of rural tracks, health, education, agriculture, infrastructure, and many others, we will keep making efforts to accelerate the implementation of socio-economic projects and programs. These mechanisms will help preserve security and combat terrorism," President Gnassingbé noted.

Esaïe Edoh

The National Inclusive Finance Fund of Togo (FNFI) wants to leverage biometric identification to track bad loan payers better. The Fund unveiled this ambition last Saturday, in a meeting with its partners and the press, in Lomé. 

"With the biometric customer identification system, we will now have a reliable database," said Assih Mazamesso, Minister of Financial Inclusion and Organization of the Informal Sector. He explained that "if a customer is in the database of unpaid loans, they will be automatically identified using facial recognition at any microfinance window they go to for another loan. This initiative will enable us to strengthen the technical capabilities of microfinance and also to have a reliable database of potential customers."

The project's pilot phase was implemented two years ago. It produced satisfying results, with over 3,000 loans granted over the period it lasted. The loans amounted to CFA168.9 billion.

The FNFI celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Since its launch, the Fund has extended over two million loans, totaling CFA109.93 billion. To date, the entity has retrieved 93.51% of this amount.

Scheduled for October this year, the 9th Pan-African Congress has been moved a few days. Initially, the forum was scheduled to take place in Lomé from October 22 to 25. It will now take place from October 29 to November 2, in Lomé still. The change was revealed by the Togolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robert Dussey, on January 18. 

The Togolese official announced at the 7th meeting of the High Ministerial Committee on the Agenda for the Decade (2021-2031) of African Roots and the Diaspora. Held online, the recent meeting was organized in preparation for the coming Congress in the Togolese capital. 

I was pleased to address today the 7th Meeting of the High Committee High Committee for the 2021-2031 Agenda, Decade of #African Roots and #Diasporas with Togo MFA Prof. @rdussey, to prepare the 9th Pan-African Congress for the “Renewal of #Pan-Africanism and #Africa's Place in… pic.twitter.com/7KKql9MeLD

— Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa (@mnsanzabaganwa) January 18, 2024

The 9th Pan-African Congress was announced several months ago. It will bring together Africans from the continent, the diaspora, as well as Afrodescendants. This year, the event’s theme is “Renewal of Pan-Africanism and Africa's Place in Global Governance: Mobilizing Resources and Reinventing for Action”. 

Preparations for the Pan-African Congress began on May 22, 2023. More preparatory meetings will be held across the continent ahead of the event.

Togo closed its second annual issue on the WAEMU market on January 22. It raised CFA27.5 billion via the operation–CFA2.5 billion more than it was seeking. 

While the operation was a simultaneous issue of fungible treasury bills and fungible treasury bonds, Lomé secured all the proceeds from the bills. The latter mature over three years and have multiple interest rates. 

Overall, 18 regional investors subscribed to the operation. They raised CFA35 billion. 

So far this year, Lomé has raised CFA52.5 billion on the WAEMU stock. This is out of an annual target of CFA607 billion which it plans to use to partly fund its budget for 2024.

Esaïe Edoh

The government of Togo will slowly transfer the management of its school canteen project to local authorities. 

On January 18, Kara and Atakpame hosted information workshops in this framework. The meetings brought together local elects and representatives of the National Agency for Grassroots Development (ANADEB) which has been steering the project since its launch in 2022.

According to reliable sources, similar meetings will take place in the Savanes, Central, and Maritime regions.

During the recent meetings, participants discussed municipalities that would first start managing the canteen project. Three municipalities, one per region, will be picked at the pilot stage. 

At this stage, the selected municipalities will receive consensual management training over three months. Subsequently, they will reveal their issues and needs which will be shared with other municipalities nationwide.

The move to let local authorities manage the school canteen project aligns with an announcement made in January 2023. 

As for the project itself, it was launched in 2022 for more than 130,000 students, across over 900 schools. The State pumped CFA1.7 billion into the initiative. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo has set up a Water Police, in line with its ambition to achieve Universal clean water supply by 2030. The police was officially established last week, via a decree issued by the Ministry of Water and Rural Hydraulics. 

Their main task will be to carry out investigations to verify the conformity of construction work on wells, boreholes, and any other works or installations for collecting or withdrawing water, or discharging effluent.

The water police will ensure compliance with the national water code and record any violation of this code. Agents and judicial police officers will be deployed to this end. They will mainly investigate the construction of wells, boreholes, and any other water collection or extraction installations, or effluent discharge facilities.

By establishing the police, the government aims to make sure that the Togolese people get clean and safe water.  "Water intended for consumption must meet all conditions of hygiene," recently stressed the Minister of Water and Rural Hydraulics, Yark Damehame

Esaïe Edoh