The National Health Insurance Institute of Togo (INAM) is carrying out an awareness campaign in the Kara region, northern Togo. The campaign started on July 13 and will end on July 21. Its focus is the universal health insurance project (AMU).

Besides information, the INAM provides, as part of the campaign, free medical consultations, blood pressure and diabetes tests. Health tips are also shared. 

Through this campaign, INAM aims to obtain reliable health data on vulnerable people. The information collected from beneficiaries will enable the institute to better implement the medical assistance scheme provided for in the AMU project.

The campaign is part of INAM's drive to extend universal health insurance coverage to the whole of Togo and to get closer to local communities.

A similar campaign was carried out last May in the Grand Lomé area. 

Moov Africa Togo and Ecobank-Togo have launched a new financial product called "Move Money ATM." This service allows Flooz (Moov's mobile money service) subscribers to withdraw cash directly from Ecobank ATMs without using a bank card. The product was unveiled on July 17, in Lomé.

"This partnership enables all Togolese who need to withdraw money, whether they are Moov or Flooz customers," said El Bedraoui Younes, Managing Director of Moov Africa.

Souleymane Touré, Managing Director of Ecobank Togo, emphasized the importance of this service for financial inclusion. "With this solution, our customers can stop going to Ecobank branches or Xpress points. They can now make their withdrawals directly at Ecobank counters. This facilitates access to financial services for a large part of the population, contributing to a significant improvement in financial inclusion in Togo," he said.

This new service marks a new stage in the collaboration between Moov Africa Togo and Ecobank, which began with a mobile banking app trial in 2018.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The town of Aného, located 30 km southeast of Lomé, is getting a new tourist center. The mayor of Lacs 1 municipality, Alexis Aquereburu, recently announced that work is underway on the project. 

The center will be a place to promote and showcase the culture of the Lacs 1 municipality. It will be equipped with furnishings like office furniture, sculptures, and paintings that illustrate the history of local palaces.

The municipality has launched a call for local craftsmen to design the furnishings for the center. They are invited to "propose high-quality furnishings in local materials." Proposals will be accepted until July 23, 2024.

This initiative comes as the Togolese authorities continue their efforts to have the Aného-Glidji locality listed as a UNESCO cultural heritage site. A technical team from the Ministry of Culture recently visited the site, which has been on Togo's UNESCO tentative list since December 2021.

Esaïe Edoh 

Togo has launched hydrogeological studies in Greater Lomé as part of the Togo Urban Water Security Project (PaSH-MUT). The studies will be conducted by Quantum, a subsidiary of the Saretec Group.

Last week, during a meeting with the Minister of Water and Village Hydraulics, Quantum executives announced they will search for, extract, and preserve groundwater in the Togolese capital. The firm will also assess the risk of groundwater contamination and determine waterproofing needs.

The studies will pave the way for implementing PaSH-MUT, which aims to create autonomous drinking water supply systems in the outlying areas of Lomé.

The World Bank backs the project with $100 million (CFA60 billion). The latter aims to extend access to drinking water in Greater Lomé and boost the national coverage rate to 85% by 2025 and 100% by 2030.

Quantum has operations in 15 African countries.

Esaïe Edoh

Togo is reviewing how dangerous goods are managed at the Lomé port. Officials from the port and the Ministry of Civil Protection held a meeting last week to discuss this issue.

The meeting participants analyzed the current practices for handling these sensitive goods, as well as the level of implementation of national and international regulations. They found that more needs to be done to ensure stricter application of the rules.

After the discussions, recommendations were made that will be submitted to a committee for further consideration. Last week’s review was prompted by the observation that many dangerous products pass through or are stored within the port, posing risks to the safety and security of the port and the entire country.

According to Calixte Madjoulba, the Minister of Security, "the consequences of poor management or non-compliance with dangerous goods protocols can be catastrophic, both in human and environmental terms." The Togolese authorities want to enhance safety at the logistics hub by implementing stricter procedures and controls to prevent major incidents related to dangerous goods.

In recent years, Togo has signed various conventions on dangerous goods management. In 2021, it also adopted specific regulations regarding the movement of these goods and hazardous waste in its territorial waters.

Esaïe Edoh

Lomé is hosting a three-day meeting focused on harmonizing health education programs in the ECOWAS. The meeting began on July 16 and was organized by the West African Health Organization (WAHO). It gathered ECOWAS health officials and professionals.

Lomé, July 15th, 2024 - The Technical Session to Align the Content of Basic and Specialized Training Curricula in the Three Official Languages of #ECOWAS has begun. #WAHO37 #HealthEducation pic.twitter.com/DzQIUeepdk

— WAHO | OOAS (@OoasWaho) July 15, 2024

The participants will work on aligning the content of basic and specialized training curricula in the three official ECOWAS languages - English, French, and Portuguese. They will also focus on harmonizing scientific and pedagogical terminology across all health professions.

"It's about the training of those who have to look after people's health, and so it's very important for us that we have harmonization of everything that's dispensed. This will enable us to equip health facilities with qualified personnel for adequate care," explained Melchior Athanase, WAHO's General Manager, at the opening of the proceedings.

Balogou Kofi, representing Togo's Minister of Health, also stressed the importance of this initiative. "This harmonization is essential to improve the quality of training for healthcare professionals. It will ensure that health structures in member countries are equipped with highly qualified personnel," he said.

In Togo, the 4th Scientific Days on HIV and AIDS ended on July 12 in Lomé. Organized by the Permanent Secretariat of the National Council for the Fight against AIDS and STIs, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, the event’s theme was "Building interventions from scientific evidence".

The meeting focused on drawing strategies and ways of improving health interventions in the management of pandemics, drawing on lessons learned from the national response in the post-COVID-19 context and the results of recent research carried out in Togo, the African sub-region, and around the world.

"To improve the quality of service delivery, stakeholders must have scientific evidence, and it is based on this evidence that robust interventions must be built whose implementation will have a positive impact on beneficiary populations," said Wotobé Kokou, the Secretary General of the Ministry in charge of Health.

At the end of the meeting, several recommendations were made, including the decentralization of health services to improve access to care in regions less affected by HIV. It was also suggested that more financial and human resources be mobilized to combat the disease in Greater Lomé, where HIV prevalence is ten times higher than in the rest of the country.

These scientific days are expected to help bring local players up to date with international news and highlight the operational research carried out by those working in the field. They should contribute to improving health interventions, to achieve the "95-95-95" targets by 2026 - meaning that 95% of people living with HIV know their serostatus, 95% of these people are on life-saving antiretroviral treatment, and 95% of people on treatment have a suppressed viral load, a prerequisite for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good health and well-being) by 2030.

 Esaïe Edoh

Togo’s power utility, CEET, is about to expand its Cash Power update project to the whole country. The company announced the news in a statement dated July 15, 2024.

In the statement, the utility noted that the project’s pilot phase, which started on July 15, ended in good conditions.

Program Schedule

The expansion phase kicked off on July 15, from the CEET branches of Lomé Headquarters, Lomé Port, and Amlamé. On July 18, it will extend to Lomé Hédzranawoe, Lomé Akossombo, and Tabligbo;  and on July 20 with Lomé Kégué, Lomé Avépozo, and Kévé. On July 23, the operation will extend to Lomé Adidogomé. On July 26, the towns of Sotouboua, Tchamba, Sokodé, Kara, Pagouda, Bafilo, Bassar, and Niamtougou will be involved. Aného, Tsévié, and Vogan will follow on July 29, and finally, on August 1, it will be the turn of Kpalimé, Notsé, Dapaong, Mango, and Cinkassé, before closing on August 3 in Atakpamé.

In its recent statement, the CEET also urged its customers to use their old tickets or codes for buying power credits before updating their meters. This way, they will avoid any loss of credits, as these are no longer accepted after the operation.