Land subdivision in Togo is subject to approval from the ministry of urban planning, housing, and land reform. The reminder came via a press release issued last week by the agriculture, economy, security, urban planning, and territorial administration ministries. 

“Any subdivision operation, involving the voluntary division of a plot of land into one or more parcels, is subject to prior authorization from the minister of urban planning, housing, and land reform,” the release reads.

This authorization, the document further indicates, must be requested by mayors and representatives of municipalities, before any subdivision operation.

By enforcing this rule, Togolese authorities aim to tackle illegal land subdivisions and the security, planning, and environmental issues it causes. 

In the country, many efforts are being made to improve governance. These include the dematerialization of the land registry and the adoption of a draft decree on the rules applicable to land books and electronic registers. All these initiatives aim to make land transactions more fluid and safer, in a context where most of the cases sent to court are land disputes.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Togo (CCI-Togo) and the National Chartered Accountants Order of Togo (ONECCA) signed Thursday, February 2, 2023, in Lome, an agreement to facilitate access to accounting services to MSMEs, SMEs, and SMIs.

Through this agreement, the two organizations want to strengthen the mission of the Certified Management Center (CGA in French). 

Consequently, Togolese businesses will benefit from management services from chartered accountants and certified accountants, including bookkeeping. Also, the deal will help SMEs grow and be more resilient, especially against issues they face while starting up. Businesses selected will get a five-year support.

"Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, which make up the bulk of our economic fabric - in fact, in 2020 we demonstrated more than 146,000 companies, 94% of which are SMEs - is a concern shared by all actors in the economic ecosystem. Because these entities are more fragile, especially at the beginning of their activities," said Nathalie Bitho, president of the special consular delegation of the CCI-Togo. 

The agreement is part of the community reform relating to approved management centers. According to Yawo Djidotor, president of the National Order of Chartered Accountants of Togo, “this initiative will mark the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the two institutions for the benefit of Togo’s business climate.” 

The Certified Management Center was established to improve the management of businesses and assist them in tax, social, and management matters. It helps them to keep and report their accounts. Nearly 200 SMEs are supported by the entity throughout the territory.

Today ends a 3-day WAEMU expert meeting on financing sustainable and resilient agriculture. The meeting, held in Lomé, was initiated by the Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement (BOAD) and the Green Climate Fund. The two organizations teamed up to help WAEMU countries in the transition process to resilient agriculture and low greenhouse gas emissions. 

Participants gathered at the meeting covered technological and financial mechanisms that foster the development of agriculture in the countries concerned, with the goal of yielding a financing project in the WAEMU States. 

“We practice rain-fed agriculture, and if it doesn't rain, we don't sow, and don't harvest. Resilient agriculture leverages irrigation, which means that even without rain, we can get water that crops need so they keep producing just like the normal season,” said Yao Merry, head of the division of climate change at the Directorate of Environment, as part of this work.

After the meeting, the Green Climate Fund should issue a concept note that will help improve agricultural financing in the WAEMU. 

The Green Climate Fund and the BOAD have been partners for years and in 2019, the Fund approved a €100 million financing for the Bank to support the renewable energy sector in the Union. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo plans to dedicate CFA13 billion to food security this year. The amount is fixed in the 2023 finance bill and represents 25% of the total budget allocated to the ministry of agriculture in 2023.

“We must feed ourselves, live from our agricultural activities, and provide for ourselves and our families to better invest in the economic development of the country,” said President Gnassingbe last Saturday at the end of the Agricultural Producers Forum (FoPAT).

Besides boosting local production, the CFA13 billion will also enable Togo’s Food Security Agency to sustain its grain purchase and storage policy. 

The government of Togo, let’s recall, is committed to the structural transformation of agriculture and the development of this sector. To this end, it launched several projects and programs.

Esaïe Edoh

The Regional Emergency Solar Power Intervention Project (RESPITE) is online. The project, which aims to boost access to electricity in Togo, Sierra Leone, Chad, and Liberia, kicked off last Tuesday in Freetown, Sierra Leone. 

"Today, our countries are taking a bold step in the right direction. RESPITE is the beginning of a revolution in energy supply and access," said Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, who presided over the official signing of the financing agreements, in the presence of official delegations from Togo, Liberia, Chad, and the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP).

On Jan 30, the day before the launch, the RESPITE’s regional technical committee held a roundtable on “Achieving universal access to energy for economic transformation”. 

The RESPITE is financed by the World Bank ($311 million). Supporting the WAPP, the project involves the installation and operation of around 106MW of solar PV power with batteries and storage systems and 41MW expansion of hydropower capacity in the four participating countries.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Over the next three years, “Moi Jeu Tri” a Togolese association specializing in waste transformation, will boost its operations with a grant of €1.125 million. It secured the facility from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the related agreement was signed on January 31, 2023, in Lomé, in the presence of several Togolese diplomats and representatives from international organizations. 

The deal, according to Edem d'Almeida, Managing Director of Africa Global Recycling (AGR) and founding president of Moi Jeu Tri, “marks an important step in a process that began nearly a year ago.” This was shortly after the AFD launched FISONG, a call for projects themed “Social and inclusive entrepreneurship, vector of solutions for the prevention and management of waste.” 

"This very selective process led to the selection of two projects in the world including ours," d’Almeida said.

The collaboration aligns with d’Almeida’s association’s ambitions, notably its plans to establish an end-of-life management channel for solar and electronic waste in Togo. This is a project with an estimated cost of €1.3 million. Besides, the new partnership joins existing initiatives to foster the sustainable and profitable management of solar and electronic waste in Togo.

In the long term, Moi Jeu Tri and the AFD hope to create 132 jobs and recover over 1,000 tons of waste, under their alliance.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) recently secured a dual-currency line of credit from the African Development Bank (AfDB). The facility, comprising $50 million and €50 million, will finance trade within ECOWAS. 

The AfDB’s board approved the credit line on January 24, in Abidjan. An additional co-financing of $30 million will come through the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF) from the People’s Bank of China. 

Agriculture, infrastructure, and transport

On its website, AfDB wrote: “EBID will use the three-and-a-half-year facility to provide direct financing to local corporates. Part of the facility will also be channeled through select local banks for on-lending to key sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, and transport. The ultimate beneficiaries will be Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), local enterprises cooperatives, and farmers in the West Africa region.”

Based in Lomé, Togo, EBID is the financial arm of the ECOWAS. Its member States are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The government of Togo will allocate CFA21 billion to its Universal Health Insurance (UHI) project this year. The sum, set in the 2023 Finance Law, is 10% higher than that forecast (CFA19 billion) for the same project in 2022, and it represents 16% of the health ministry’s budget in 2023 (CFA127 billion). 

With the increased allocation, the UHI should be implemented faster. This is as the INAM, which is in charge of the project, gets ready to launch a new health insurance product that will cover informal actors who are not covered by traditional insurance products.

Togo, it should be noted, inked, in 2021, with the World Bank a CFA38.5 billion deal to provide quality healthcare to the Togolese people.

Esaïe Edoh