The government of Togo recently injected $1 million into a new sovereign insurance subscription for local farmers. The package covers the 2023-2024 agricultural campaign and includes a $500,000 grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The new insurance deal was inked with African Risk Capacity (ARC), the pan-African risk management mutual. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, it will enable Togolese farmers to receive "emergency support in the event of extreme weather events and natural disasters, such as drought, floods, tropical cyclones, epizootics, locust invasions."

Every year since 2019, Togo has subscribed to the same policy to help curb the negative impacts of droughts and rains on farmers’ activities. The corresponding amounts were $499,924, $500,000, $994,625, and $1,000,000 in  2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively. 

In 2022-2023, the ARC provided Togo with $2.5 million in the same framework. At the beginning of that period, the country had recorded multiple pockets of drought which had impaired crop production. 

The government put the number of farmers severely hit by the drought at 69,444 nationwide–including 59,167 farmers in the Savanes region, and 6,233 and 4044 in the Kara and Central regions, respectively.

Esaïe Edoh

A group of Togolese ministers is carrying out a nationwide communication campaign on the government’s universal healthcare (AMU). The campaign began on January 15, in Dapaong, (Savanes region).

Among others, the delegation includes the ministers of health, public works, universal healthcare, and social action. Last Monday, they gave the people of Dapaong more details about the government’s universal health insurance project. 

Some of the details unveiled include the conditions and practical mechanisms for implementing the project, as well as its impacts on targeted citizens. 

The delegation of ministers invited the people to enroll, encouraging them to prioritize social cohesion and solidarity.  "Whether you work in the private or public sector, or the informal sector, farming, crafts, or the liberal professions, everyone will slowly be incorporated into the system and will be asked to contribute so that every citizen benefits from care via the AMU system in the event of illness," the delegation told the people of Dapaong.

Esaïe Edoh 

Lapaire, an African eyewear startup present in Togo and five other African countries, recently raised $3 million to further expand across the continent.

For this capital raising, the round was led by impact investment fund Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), according to several media including Africa, with participation from AAIC, FINCA Ventures, and Beyond Capital. The deal received advisory support from CrossBoundary, via USAID's Trade and Investment in Africa activity.

Founded in 2018 by Jérôme Lapaire, a Swiss national based in Kenya, Lapaire's mission is to make eyewear more accessible in Africa. 

It is worth noting that about 35% of Africans have visual impairments – 80% of which can be corrected with glasses.

Lapaire has been present in Togo for some years now. It is also present in Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya, and Uganda. The company provides optical eyewear at affordable rates and offers free sight tests.

Lapaire has 350 employees across 58 eyecare centers. It plans to open 300 more centers over the next two years, reaching a million more people by the end of this year. 

To date, the company has offered free eyesight tests to over 350,000 people.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo's Minister for the Digital Economy and Digital Transformation, Cina Lawson, is in Davos, Switzerland. She takes part in the ongoing World Economic Forum which ends January 19, 2024.

Over 2,800 participants are present at the forum this year. This includes about 50 heads of State and governments.

At the forum, Lawson will showcase Togo's achievements in digital transformation. She should also use the opportunity to build new alliances that will help Togo move further on its path to digital transformation. 

Held every year, the Davos Forum brings together multinational business leaders, bankers, politicians, and influential intellectuals from around the world. Launched in 1971, it mainly aims to foster global cooperation to tackle political, social and economic issues.

Esaïe Edoh

The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) announced plans to soon host a major forum in Lomé, Togo. The Bank will give more details on the project next week, on January 24. 

The ECOWAS Investment Forum (EIF), as the event is called, should take place at the EBID’s headquarters. It would be its first edition. 

Themed "Transforming ECOWAS Communities in a Challenging Environment", the EIF 2024 should gather many economic players, including officials, investors, and executives from financial institutions and private firms.

Besides helping materialize deals and decisions that will bolster West African economies, the upcoming forum should also help the EBID raise the money it needs to carry out its five-year strategic plan (2021-2025): $1.48 billion.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Lomé will close its second annual issue on the regional money market, the WAEMU stock market, on January 22. Lomé just launched the operation, a simultaneous issue of fungible treasury bonds and treasury bills. The target: CFA25 billion. 

According to the related tender notice, the fungible bills, or BATs, have a nominal value of CFA1 million. They will mature over 91 days and have multiple interest rates. As for the fungible bonds, or OATs, they have a face value of CFA10,000 and an interest rate of 6.15%. They will mature over three years.

Overall, Lomé expects CFA10 billion from the BATs and CFA5 billion from the OATs.

Togo will use the proceeds of the operation -the second this year- to meet its budgetary needs for 2024. The latter stands at CFA2,179 billion, balanced out in revenues and expenditures.

Esaïe Edoh

The U.S. Embassy in Togo just launched its Public Diplomacy (PD) Small Grants Program. According to the Embassy’s notice announcing the funding program, the grants extended range from $2,000 to $25,000. The whole package amounts to $60,000.00.

Applicants and their target audiences can come from any of Togo's five regions (and applicants are encouraged to specify their target audience according to criteria such as geographic region, gender, socio-economic status, and age/education level).

The funding program focuses on fostering peace and security, democratic institutions, economic growth and development opportunities; as well as on projects such as academic conferences, professional seminars, artistic workshops, and academic exchanges.

Projects submitted for grants must be launched between January and September 2024.

Over the past decade, Togo’s Inclusive Finance Fund, the Fonds National de la Finance Inclusive (FNFI) disbursed CFA109.83 billion. The figure covers the period from April 2014 to January 2024. It was made public on January 5.

The loans were extended to around 1.8 million informal business owners. While they received the money through the FNFI’s 13 financing offers, the largest part was allocated via three offers: Accès des Pauvres aux Services Financiers (APSEF), Accès des Agriculteurs aux Services Financiers (AGRISEF) and Accès des Jeunes aux Services Financiers (AJSEF).

Through the APSEF, CFA38 billion (or 34% of all loans granted) were disbursed to fund businesses of vulnerable women and men. The AGRISEF financed small-scale farmers, providing CFA35 billion (32% of the total). The third offer, the AJSEF, backed young craftsmen and apprentices who completed their training. They received CFA16 billion.

The remaining CFA20 billion were granted via the FNFI’s other offers. 

The loans were granted through the FNFI’s network of decentralized finance institutions (DFIs).

In regards to debt repayment, the loan recipients paid back 93.5% of what was borrowed over the decade concerned.

The FNFI was created in 2014 to help those who do not or cannot access traditional lending outlets. It does this by bolstering the financial and operational capacities of DFIs. To date, the Fund is in partnership with 21 DFIs. 

Esaïe Edoh