The Togolese parliament adopted the 2024 finance bill last week, on December 22. The budget stands at CFA2,179 billion–expenditures and revenues–making it the first time the figure ever exceeds CFA2 billion.

The new budget is up 10.3% compared to the 2023 rectifying budget which stood at CFA1,975 billion. 

Next year, 48% of the budget will be devoted to promoting inclusion, against 44.4% in 2023. Economic transformation will capture 30.1% of the budget, and State reinforcement will get 21.9%. 

The funds will be spent on projects aimed at making the poorest people more resilient, and to organize the legislative and regional elections. Part of the budget will also be channelled to efforts for better defending the country and bolstering the following sectors: health, public works, maritime economy, fisheries, agriculture, digital economy, trade, and industry.

Also, Togo plans to use the IMF's zero-interest Extended Credit Facility (ECF), $400 million, to meet its needs in terms of inclusion and national security, according to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Sani Yaya.

Lomé also plans to provide local authorities with the resources they need to finance their development projects.

Esaïe Edoh

New water and sanitation facilities were inaugurated last week in Togo’s Savanes region. Provided by Japan and UNICEF, the facilities were inaugurated on December 21.

They include 61 mixed (solar and hand-powered) water pumps and 38 toilets for schools and rural communities. According to UNICEF, they should improve the lives of the people of the region which currently faces terrorist attacks. 

The facilities were set up under the Savanes Resilience and Reinforcement Emergency Project (PURS) and a water project backed by Japan and UNICEF.

UNICEF and Togo, it is worth noting, are in talks to redefine the terms of their cooperation in 2024-2026. The new partnership will cover access to education, health, water, hygiene, and sanitation infrastructure, protection against violence, exploitation and abuse, and social protection.

Esaïe Edoh

Chinese and Korean companies active in Togo’s free-trade area weighed about CFA64 billion at the end of 2022. The evaluation was made by the Investment Promotion Agency and Free Zone (API-ZF) and relayed by the Minister of Investment Promotion, Manuella Santos, on December 21, 2022, in Lomé. Alongside the figure, Santos reported that the Asian firms created over 3,000 local jobs. She spoke during an Investors' Breakfast held yesterday, at the 2 Février Hotel.

"As of December 31, 2022, your companies, in the free-trade zone alone, were estimated to have invested nearly CFA64 billion and created 3,036 jobs for local workers, according to the agency's international statistics," Minister Santos told the businesses. She took the opportunity to present them with investment opportunities available in Togo, as well as take stock of their concerns and requests.

"We invite you to get involved in the implementation of our economic policy presented in the Togo 2025 roadmap," added Manuella Santos.

Some of the companies that attended the meeting included Leopard Moto Sarl (which sells bikes), Amina Togo Sarl, West Africa Battery (which makes batteries for bikes and cars), YSO Daily Products Manufacturing Sarl; Sofina Sarl (they make nylon thread, fishing nets, spool thread, nylon thread, packages, ropes), and China Sinomach-Hi West Africa.

The businesses present expressed their satisfaction with Togo’s investment climate but underscored a few challenges, such as access to land, and bottlenecks at the customs level. 

A few days before meeting with the Korean and Chinese firms, Minister Santos had met with an Indian delegation in the same framework. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The Togolese government is considering taxing boreholes, in a bid to better manage water resources nationwide. The project was discussed on December 20 at the Council of Ministers. On the occasion, the Minister of Water made a presentation on the Integrated Water Resources Management Fund (Fonds de Gestion Intégrée des Ressources en Eau - Fonds-GIRE).

"The Head of State has instructed the government to carry out a reflection for the case of households that use drilled groundwater, making sure the quality of the water extracted meets standards of quality for drinking and household use, and taking into account the need to rationally use water resources,"  the government said at the end of the meeting.

Domestic consumption exempted

If implemented, the tax will not apply to domestic use. "Households will not be taxed for their domestic consumption,"  revealed Yawa Kouigan, Minister of Communication and government spokesperson. However, the authorities will ensure that the water they get is of good quality. To this end, control missions are planned, in the Greater Lomé area especially. The government’s concerns arise amidst a rapid rise in borehole digging in this area; a situation that raised concern about the quality and overexploiting of water resources.

It is worth recalling that a few months ago the Minister of Water and Village Hydraulics, Yark Damehane, mentioned the possibility of setting up a "water police" which would monitor boreholes in Greater Lomé.

GIRE and Tinga Fund management

Another instruction given by President Gnassingbé was to proceed to the “collegial” management of the Fonds-GIRE and the Fonds Tinga (for rural electrification) while maintaining "their sectoral autonomy."

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Turkey will open a research center at the University of Lomé (UL), Togo. Muteber Kiliç, the Turkish ambassador to Togo, announced the news on December 19, 2023.

The center will help Togolese students know more about Turkey and secure Turkish scholarships. It will also be a place where teaching researchers from both countries collaborate and share their experiences.

Ahead of the opening, teaching, student, and administrative staff mobility programs will be rolled out, according to UL's Director of Cooperation, Joseph Koffi Tsigbe.

The announcement marks the beginning of a relationship between the two countries on the educational front, complementing their growing diplomatic and economic cooperation. 

According to the Turkish embassy, trade between Togo and Turkey stood at around $200 million last year, against $128 million in 2021.

Esaïe Edoh

The Togolese Minister of Investment Promotion, Manuella Santos, met a group of Indian businesspeople active in the country last Tuesday, December 19. During the meeting, an Investors' Breakfast held in Lomé, the Indians highlighted the issues they face in their activities to the official.

The businessmen complained mainly about the slow process of their applications at the Land Registry, insufficient power supply to run their machines, and slow processing of immigration formalities.

Regarding the first issue relating to application processing at the land registry, Minister Santos told the Indian delegation that the process would soon be digitized. “This,” she emphasized, “will help cut delays and deal with the issue of sluggishness.” 

Meanwhile, the Togolese Tax Office (OTR) attributes the delays in processing to an increase in the number of applications since 2021, spurred by lower costs of procedures.

Manuella Santos also noted that the government would take steps to make doing business in Togo easier for foreign investors.

The Investors Breakfasts align with this ambition to protect the interests of foreign businesspeople. The country plans to hold more of these meetings.

Esaïe Edoh

The Ministry of Trade of Togo will soon carry out control missions to check for expired and fake goods that are sold across the country. Ahead of the operations, Rose Mivedor just reminded businesses that selling these products is prohibited. 

“The Minister of Commerce brings to the attention of economic operators and consumers that the sale of counterfeit, falsified, and expired products is strictly prohibited,”  reads a press release issued on December 20, 2023. 

The Ministry of Trade warned that "All offenders will be severely punished under the laws in force," before recalling that abnormal practices can be reported via the 8585 toll-free number.

Esaïe Edoh

A new project to support Togo’s rice sector was launched on Monday, Dec 18, in Lomé. The initiative, OCOP-TOGO, is backed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

"This project supports the government’s actions to bolster the rice sector. The Togolese State’s goal with this initiative is to ensure food and nutritional security for the Togolese people leveraging the local rice output, and have surpluses set aside for agricultural processing industries", said Konlani Dindiogue, Director of Cabinet at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development.

The OCOP-TOGO project will cover zones with high rice production potential, implementing green technologies in these parts of the country. The project aims to help producers and rice parboiling cooperatives adopt green production, green processing, and green marketing while bolstering the capacities, technical and organizational, of players in the sector.

Togo is one of the 28 countries to benefit from the FAO initiative. The West African country was filtered through a call for applications entitled "One country one priority product."

Commenting on Togo’s current performances in the rice sector, Cabinet Director Konlani Dindiogue said "We are currently about 70% dependent. In 2021, for example, the national production of milled rice was around 100,000 tonnes. We only cover 30% of needs. It is urgent to step up the government's actions to achieve these objectives."

For his part, Oyetunde Djiwa, FAO Program Director in Togo, revealed that "Togo wants to reverse the balance of trade in rice, which is imported in large quantities. And for the initiative underway in Togo, it is focusing on rice, supporting producers in sustainable rice production, identifying a few pilot sites where we demonstrate to producers how to improve their production techniques, and finding women on the sites who will process the rice, because today, parboiled rice is in high demand on the Togolese market."

The pilot phase of the OCOP-TOGO is set to end in 2025.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Starting next month, Togolese residents will be able to pay the Motor Vehicle Tax (TVM) and secure their Tax I.D Number (NIF) online. This was announced by Philippe Tchodié, general commissioner of the Togolese Tax Office (OTR), on December 18.

The reform will ease tax payments while reducing costs and delays, according to the OTR. "Now, anyone with a cell phone can get their NIF and this is a major step forward for our tax administration. Also, details relative to tax payment can be checked at all times to settle due payments," said Tchodié.

This is good news for taxpayers but not so much for some intermediaries who used to charge bogus fees to help taxpayers secure their NIF.

Every taxpayer is assigned an NIF, a serial I.D. number, to interact with the OTR. The digital payment of the TVM and the dematerialization of the NIF creation process are part of the OTR’s reforms. 

Esaïe Edoh