Togo will deploy a new project to strengthen national and regional capacities in facing climate risks. Called "Project to strengthen national and regional capacities for effective climate risk management in Togo," the initiative is funded by the Green Climate Fund (nearly $2.5 million). It will be implemented over 36 months, with the FAO’s support.

The project was officially launched on April 25, during a ceremony chaired by the minister of environment, Foli-Bazi Katari. The minister of maritime economy, Edem Kokou Tengue, was also present.

The project has four components: strengthening the institutional architecture and governance for climate risk management at the national and regional levels, improving the data and knowledge base on climate change vulnerabilities, promoting private sector engagement and investment in adaptation, and developing the monitoring, reporting and financing management system for climate change adaptation.

While launching the project, Minister Foli-Bazi thanked the Green Climate Fund and the FAO for helping Togo make its ecosystems and people more resilient to climate change and its adverse impact.

"In view of the commitment of the Togolese government and the importance it has placed on sustainable environmental management, FAO will spare no effort to contribute to the achievement of the expected results," said for his part, Dr. Djiwa Oyétoundé, program officer at FAO.

The country should also continue to benefit from the FAO’s support, on other projects with the GEF-8 (Global Environment Facility), specifically in the area of sustainable forest management.

Ghanaian George Agyekum Nana Donkor has been reappointed as the President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) for a second five-year term. This decision was taken at the 21st Ordinary Session of the Board of Governors held on 5 April 2023.

He was elected to head this banking institution for the first time in January 2020. He was Vice President in charge of finance, administration, and institutional services for seven years and will begin his new term on February 1, 2024.

According to a statement by the sub-regional banking institution, the reelection of the Ghanaian is attributed to the Bank's progress since he took office. The Board notes the reduction of the Bank's non-performing loans (NPL) ratio from more than 8% to 4.28% and the recovery of USD77.5 million in capital arrears. The balance sheet also grew by 36.8% in 2022.

For the next 5 years, George Donkor "is committed to continuing to work with the Ministers and the Board to move the Bank forward, with the objective of making it the premier financial institution in the region, while supporting member states to ensure socio-economic development," the statement said.

Esaïe Edoh

Speaking yesterday on New World TV, a satellite-broadcast Togolese channel, Togo’s President, Faure Gnassingbé called on local farmers to boost their output, thus contributing to the country’s food sufficiency, and helping lower the cost of living. The interview was held on the sidelines of the celebration of the 63rd anniversary of Togo’s independence.

"A good part of the phenomenon (high cost of living ed.) finds its solution on Togolese soil", Gnassingbé said on air. That is why he urged farmers to "produce more to be less dependent on the outside for food products.

Last January, the leader made a similar call in Tsévié, during the second phase of the Forum of Agricultural Farmers of Togo (FoPAT). "We must feed ourselves, live off our agricultural activities, provide for ourselves and our families to better invest in the economic development of the country," he declared at the time.

According to the President, conditions have been set to prevent farming from being seen as a hard job. To this end, several agricultural projects have been developed; and mechanisms to facilitate access to agricultural financing have been introduced as well.

To counter the high cost of living, Faure Gnassingbé also reassured of the continuation of social measures taken by the government to mitigate its impact on the lives of people.

A long fight against terrorism

On the security issue, President Faure Gnassingbé, who has been condemning the terrorist attacks recorded in the north of Togo for nearly two years, reaffirmed his willingness to double the efforts to end the phenomenon.

"The Togolese people must expect a long fight with some drama because it is inevitable when there is war. But I can reassure my compatriots that at the end, there will be victory. We are determined to reduce these armed bands," the leader said.

Gnassingbé considers the terrorist attacks as a form of war "because Togo has always been peaceful".

Esaïe Edoh

The Dogta-Lafiè Hospital has registered 700 patients since it partially opened on March 1, 2023. This figure was communicated by the director of the National Social Security Fund (CNSS), Ingrid Awadé, during the hospital’s official inauguration by President Faure Gnassingbé. The inauguration ceremony took place on 26 April 2023 in Lomé.

Leveraging its modern facilities, which meet international standards, Dogta-Lafiè, ex-Saint Peregrine, according to the Togolese authorities, will offer quality care to the locals and people from neighboring countries.

Specialized in the fields of Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics (MCO), this hospital, according to the Togolese Minister of Health, Moustafa Mijiyawa, will strengthen the social protection of the population and bring a modern concept of hospitalization in the country which is committed to universal access to health care by 2030.

"This new socio-health infrastructure strengthens the provision of care, a pillar of universal health coverage in our country. It illustrates the efforts made by the Head of State in the establishment of the three pillars of the health system namely the construction, rehabilitation, and equipment of health centers" said Moustafa Mijiyawa.

"The modernization of health infrastructure and the improvement of the quality of care that our compatriots receive remains a priority to which all public and private initiatives in this area must contribute," Faure Gnassingbé said for his part.

Built on 11,000 m², the new hospital has eight blocks connected by a central distribution building. It has 22 consultation rooms, 160 beds, and places including suites, high-standard rooms, single rooms, and double rooms.

It also has a medical imaging and dental block, a medical block, an administrative block, a surgical block, a mother-child block, a VIP block with a coffee area for accompanying persons, a laboratory block, and a logistics block.  

Located at the northern entrance of Lomé, Dogta-Lafiè is the first hospital of its kind in Togo. In its first year of activity, it is expected to register at least 80,000 patients.

Esaïe Edoh

Togo celebrates its 63rd independence anniversary today, April 27, 2023. The event is marked by several festivities. One of them is the traditional rekindling of the flame of independence, which took place a day before, in the presence of some foreign political and civil personalities, members of the government, the National Assembly, and senior officers of the Togolese armed forces (FAT).

The most important event marking the anniversary is the great military, paramilitary and civilian parade in Lomé, the capital, under the authority of the President of the Republic, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé. It gathered over 4,500 men and women of the defense and security forces. The parade was followed by cultural, sporting, and recreational events.

Outside of Lomé, parades were also held in the main towns of the country’s five regions. Ahead of the anniversary, President Gnassingbé took part in several notable events such as the recent inauguration of Kara’s new central market (412 km north of Lomé) and Lomé’s Dogta Lafiè hospital. The leader also laid the foundation stone for a new campus at the University of Kara in the north–the second biggest public university in Togo, after the University of Lomé.

In Togo, the Directors General of Statistics of ECOWAS countries and national focal points are meeting in Lomé this week. This is under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission to discuss the West Africa Harmonization and Improvement of Statistics (PHASAO) initiative. The goal of the meeting is to validate the documents developed for the harmonization of statistics in the region.

The roundtable, which lasts 5 days, was opened by the Director of Cabinet at the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Cooperation, Essohanam Edjéou.

Currently, seven countries are covered by the PHASAO (Togo, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone), but the meeting in Lome is aimed at bringing other countries on board, under the project’s second phase. "We want to enable the countries that are going to join the second phase of PHASAO to have all the necessary information on World Bank funding," said Kouassi Kouame, DG of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED).

Funded by the World Bank, the PHASAO supports the production of quality statistical data for the formulation of development policies, plans, and programs, as well as the monitoring of national and international development strategies in all ECOWAS countries. The initiative also aims at harmonizing national statistics at the sub-regional level.

The project helped Togo make significant progress in data production. For example, the country’s statistics office carried out many important statistical operations. These include harmonized surveys on household living conditions, the rebasing of national accounts, and more recently, the 5th general census of population and housing (RGPH-5).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

As part of the Land Reform for Agricultural Productivity (LRAP) Project, the Millennium Challenge Account Implementing Agency (OMCA) held in Lomé (Togo) a national workshop on land conflict management on 25 April 2023. During the meeting, key stakeholders of the LRAP–representatives of the civil society, traditional chieftainship, and the State–assessed the project, in preparation for its upcoming stages.

"The LRAP project has reached cruising speed," said N'gname Bougonou, Director General of the Millennium Challenge Account Implementing Agency (OMCA TOGO) and Director General of OMCA. "Indeed, in March and April, which is ending, under the coordination of VNG (the firm providing technical support for the project), tests were carried out to optimize land procedures,” she added. 

The workshop is consequent with preliminary studies and a micro-regional diagnosis of conflict management in the country. These helped draw a typology of land conflicts and the local structures involved in their management.

"We started our technical assistance mission and conducted a number of exercises, including a micro-regional diagnosis on conflict management," Egy Sossou, head of mission for technical assistance under the program, commented in this regard. Before adding: "We had other complementary exercises to deepen this theme and today, we felt that it was time to be able to meet in a spirit of sharing and consultation, to better identify together the most appropriate ways, processes, approaches, taking into account local realities, the capital that exists at the level of customs, to together define more effective approaches that consolidate peace and social cohesion on the management of land conflicts."

The prefectures of Zio, Wawa, Dankpen, Tchamba, and South Oti are the five localities picked for the pilot phase of the LRAP. Each is located in one of Togo’s five economic regions. 

In Togo, over 80% of cases brought to court are land conflicts. "Most of the conflicts in our communities are related to land", said Vincent Kavege, head of mission for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Togo, during the workshop; Kavege’s organization is quite active in South Oti. "We, the civil society organizations, also have our way of helping these communities and finding solutions that could, possibly, prevent them from going to court," he added.

The LRAP has a budget of CFA20 billion. According to current forecasts, the project should end in February 2026.

At last, after 7 years of reconstruction, Kara’s new market is completed. The facility was inaugurated last Monday, by President Faure Gnassingbé.

Located in the Lama district, the renovated market spans nearly six (06) hectares. It includes a three-story building, a green space, an esplanade, and a parking lot. The market is equipped with 736 individual stalls, 72 stores, 5 premises dedicated to banks and insurance companies, 8 wholesale stores, 6 equipped cold rooms, a police unit, and an infirmary.

It also came with an automatic fire protection system, a central roadway for firefighters, and equipment routing in case of an explosion.

According to President Gnassingbé, "This infrastructure is intended to support the economic activities of our fellow citizens and facilitate access to products and commodities of primary necessity."

The construction project was carried out as part of the PARMCO, the project supporting the reconstruction of markets in Lomé and Kara. The PARMCO is financed by the government and the African Development Bank (AfDB). Together, they poured CFA8 billion into the project.

Esaïe Edoh

Togo received yesterday, 25 April, 6,000 tons of fertilizer from Japan. The fertilizer, which is worth CFA2.5 billion is to help the African nation boost its rice output. 

The donation was sealed with agreements signed in the presence of the Togolese minister of agriculture, Antoine Lekpa Gbegbeni, and Japan’s ambassador who is based in Abidjan, Katsuya Ikkatai.

"This very salutary support will help improve, for the 2023-2024 agricultural season, agricultural productivity and yield in rice farms. It comes at the right time in a context where the global supply of fertilizer has been disrupted by the impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict," Antoine Lekpa Gbegbeni said.

For his part, the Japanese ambassador said the donation materializes his country’s commitments at the recent TICAD in Tunis. "Our assistance today, is the concretization of the commitments expressed by Japan and it is, moreover, fully consistent with Togo’s 2025 roadmap, the development guideline of the Togolese government," said Katsuya Ikkatai.

Currently, the two partners are in talks with bilateral partners to ensure that Japan supplies Togo with fertilizer every year.

In December 2022, Japan supported Togo with a CFA1.75 billion financing package and 2,748 tons of rice to bridge its rice deficit and boost food security in the country.  Ambassador Ikkatai was also present when the stock was delivered.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi