• Workshop hosted in Aneho with focus on improving capacities related to local economic development.

• The session is supported by the German cooperation through the ProDeG IV program, executed by GIZ

• Participants are learning about planning, mobilising resources, and implementing dynamic economic strategies.

Gathered in Aneho, various local Togolese stakeholders are appropriating the fundamentals of local economic development. The capacity-building workshop is organized by the Ministry of Spatial Planning and Territorial Development. It ends on September 5, 2025.
The meeting is technically and financially backed by the German cooperation through the ProDeG IV program, implemented by GIZ. It regrouped 77 trainees.
The end-goal is to equip municipalities with the tools to plan, mobilise, and implement economic dynamisation strategies suited to their realities. The session covers the conceptual framework of local economic development, sectoral and territorial approaches, as well as the stages of diagnosis, planning, and monitoring of actions.
As part of the workshop, participants will conduct a field trip in the Lacs 1 municipality. There, they will engage with technical services and the private sector.
Present at the session’s opening, the ministry’s Director of Cabinet, Lakougnon Essossima Koffi, urged participants to appropriately steer local economic planning processes. Awume Yawo, representing GIZ, stated that this assistance is intended to reduce territorial disparities and promote balanced development.
According to the Mayor of Lacs 1, Me Aquéréburu Coffi Alexis, one of the main challenges is enhancing the municipalities' ability to highlight their strengths, boost their appeal, and mobilise the necessary resources for investment.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

• Togo starts administering the anti-malarial R21/Matrix-M vaccine

• It is the 22nd African country to adopt the drug

• Campaign began this week, targeting around 269,000 children annually; it aims to curb malaria-related morbidity and mortality by 65% by 2030.

Togo has adopted the R21/Matrix-M anti-malarial vaccine, joining others like Ghana, Benin, Nigeria. The country, the 22^nd on the continent to introduce the drug, kicked off a vaccination campaign on September 1.
Malaria is a major health and economic challenge in Togo. The disease, according to the Togolese Ministry of Health, accounts for 40% of outpatient consultations and 25% of hospital admissions, especially affecting children under five years old, who are the primary target of this campaign. In 2022, this age group represented 64% of confirmed cases and 65% of hospital deaths linked to the disease.
The vaccination schedule includes four doses between 5 and 15 months. The goal is to vaccinate approximately 269,000 children annually (simultaneously covering the country's 39 health districts), which equates to 3.1% of the population, with an intended coverage rate of 80% for the first dose and 70% for the fourth.
The campaign is bolstered by a partnership between the government, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Togo's health authorities aim to reduce malaria-related child morbidity and mortality by 65% by 2030.

To achieve this goal, authorities must tackle several hurdles, such as getting parents onboard, fighting misinformation, and securing necessary resources, sustainably.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo’s Pension Fund (CRT) paid out more than CFA26.2 billion in social benefits by the end of June 2025, against total revenue of CFA24.5 billion. This left a technical deficit of nearly CFA2 billion, according to the fund’s semi-annual statistical and financial report seen by Togo First.

A total of 41,775 people received benefits in the first half of the year. Retirees accounted for the largest group with 27,991 recipients, while 7,287 received widows’ pensions and 6,206 received temporary allowances for orphans. The CRT also disbursed more than CFA1.1 billion in family benefits and CFA22 million in disability pensions.

By quarter, CFA12.9 billion was distributed in the first quarter and CFA13.2 billion in the second. The increase was mainly due to a higher number of beneficiaries, with retirees rising from 27,883 in Q1 to 27,991 in Q2. Widows’ pensions also grew from 7,159 to 7,287 over the same period.

On the revenue side, CRT collected CFA23.9 billion from pension contributions by June, representing more than 97% of total inflows. Investment income brought in CFA450 million, while other sources—such as subsidies, reimbursements, or exceptional items—added CFA220 million.

The city of Tsévié in Togo now has a new livestock market. The facility, inaugurated on August 29, is built on a three-hectare site.

A collaboration between the Togolese government and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), the market includes an administrative building, a trading shed, a storage warehouse, watering troughs, modern latrines, a borehole, and a sanitary control post. The new infrastructure is designed to improve sales conditions, enhance food safety, and ensure the sanitary traceability of animals.

Authorities believe the project will be a driver of local and regional growth. Minister of State for Fishery and Animal Resources, Yark Damehame, highlighted that the project is part of the national strategy to modernize the livestock sector, which plays a key role in the country's agricultural GDP.

The new market is expected to facilitate trade between herders and merchants, while also improving the supply chain for slaughterhouses and butcher shops. Ultimately, it should help producers better integrate into commercial channels and increase the competitiveness of the sector.

Togo's Technical Secretariat of the Management Commission of the. Support Fund for Local Authorities (ST-CG-FACT) is launching a monitoring and evaluation mission to audit how municipalities managed the grants allocated to them in 2024. The operation, which begins on Monday, September 1, 2025, and will run until October 25, aims to verify the effectiveness of investments made using FACT resources.

The mission's objectives include physically inspecting completed infrastructure projects, documenting their condition, reviewing procurement files related to the funded projects, and identifying any challenges municipalities faced during implementation.

The initiative will be conducted in two phases. From September 1 to September 28, the team will visit the Savanes, Kara, and Centrale regions. The second phase, from October 5 to October 25, will cover the Plateaux and Maritime regions, as well as Greater Lomé. In total, 102 municipalities across the country will be part of the audit.

The findings from the evaluation are expected to help improve the efficiency of the FACT and optimize its role in local development.

In 2024, the FACT provided 8.5 billion CFA Francs to municipalities nationwide. These funds were used to support local projects in various sectors, including education, health, water, road, market, and sports and cultural infrastructure.

Esaïe Edoh

• Lacs 1 mobilized CFA2.59bn in revenue and spent CFA2.78bn over five years.
• Funds backed projects in schools, health centers, markets, electrification, and sanitation.
• Mayor urges residents to pay taxes to support growth, aiming to make Lacs 1 the “greenest commune” by 2050.

The Lacs 1 commune in Aného has published its management report covering 2020 to 2024 along with the 2025 administrative account. Over five years, successive budgets totaled CFA5.46 billion, with revenues reaching CFA2.59 billion and expenditures CFA2.78 billion.

These resources, supplemented by external support, financed projects in education, health, infrastructure, and sanitation. Achievements include the construction and renovation of schools, markets, health centers, and municipal facilities, along with the purchase of heavy equipment, electrification, and installation of street lighting. The commune also developed green spaces and carried out reforestation and awareness campaigns.

Despite progress, raising local revenue remains a challenge. Mayor Me Aquereburu Coffi Alexis urged residents to pay taxes regularly to sustain development efforts, stressing his ambition to make Lacs 1 “the greenest commune in Togo by 2050.”

The municipality plans to leverage its historical and cultural heritage, its location on the Benin border and the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, as well as its Atlantic coastline, to develop new activities, particularly in tourism.