Togo First
WAEMU securities: Togo paid back nearly 300 billion CFA by the end of October 2022
So far this year, Togo has paid back CFA299 billion out of what it owes WAEMU investors. As at November 10, 2022, the country raised CFA433 billion from these investors this year.
The funds reimbursed break down into 27.5 billion of fungible treasury securities and 271.43 billion of fungible treasury bonds. This is according to data from the UMOA securities agency that Togo First consulted.
This year, Togo, it should be noted, intends to raise CFA663 billion on the regional money market. The proceeds will serve to finance the national budget.
Esaïe Edoh
The IFC gives details about its priorities in Togo
Sergio Pimenta, Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for Africa, met with President Faure Gnassingbe on 28 November. The two men met on the sidelines of the African Financial Industry Summit held in Lomé, Togo.
On the occasion, the IFC’s VP for Africa talked about his institution’s priorities for Togo in the coming years. "We discussed financial inclusion and many other major areas of our priorities which are the development of agriculture, agribusiness, logistics, and transport which are important sectors of the Togolese economy. Togo is a very important country for the IFC,” Pimenta said.
The IFC also plans to strengthen its partnership with Togo, based on the latter’s “consistent commitment to the promotion of financial industries across the continent.”
Currently, the IFC’s portfolio in Togo is estimated at CFA450 million. The World Bank’s private sector financing arm, in the West African nation, finances mainly social infrastructure projects, digital projects, and energy and agricultural transformation (SMEs and SMIs) projects.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo: the 2nd edition of AFIS Summit begins in Lomé
The Togolese President, Faure Gnassingbé, launched the second edition of the Africa Financial Industry Summit (AFIS) today, Nov. 28. The two-day event is being held in Lomé and it is the first time it takes place physically.
Over 600 decision-makers from the African finance industry are attending the summit. These include central bank governors (of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, the BCEAO, etc.), ministers, regulators, bankers, CEOs of Fintechs, banks, and insurance companies (Equity Group, Ecobank, BOA Group, SANLAM, NSIA, etc.), and financial actors. They will discuss several topics such as agricultural finance, exchange interconnection, mobile money, climate finance, AfCFTA, cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies, and Basel III issues, among others.
According to the organizers of the event which is sponsored by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the AFIS should “allow African industry leaders to contribute to the continent’s economic recovery through the development of a competitive, innovative, inclusive, and sustainable financial industry.”
Amir Ben Yamed, Director of Jeune Afrique Media Group, which is one of the organizers, claims that seeking financial sovereignty must be a priority for Africa. He believes the continent should put its financial industry under the international spotlight. This is an opinion shared by Sergio Pimenta, Vice President, IFC. Pimenta even added that African banks must take over the financing of African trade, in a context where the latter has an annual deficit of nearly $90 billion.
For President Gnassingbe, however, the future of African finance will be built through a tight collaboration between the governments and the private sector, especially given the current global crises–the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic, notably.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Access to water: Lomé will host an important meeting for Togo this week
Lomé will host, on December 1 and 2, a roundtable on access to water in Togo. In partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), the ministry of water and rural hydraulics is organizing the meeting.
During the two days the meeting will take place, Togolese authorities will discuss the country’s vision regarding access to drinking water, talk about related priorities, mobilize stakeholders, and secure commitments (both technical and financial) to implement the Master plan for the supply of drinking water in Greater Lomé.
The master plan covers the period going from 2023 to 2050. It is designed to improve water supply in cities, restructure the current network and equip it with new infrastructure.
Overall, authorities estimate that it will cost CFA600 billion to implement the plan by 2030 and CFA1,400 billion in 2050.
The project, it is worth mentioning, aligns with the government’s ambition to bring water supply coverage to 80% in Togo, by 2023.
Esaïe Edoh
President Gnassingbé was recently in Niger with other African leaders to discuss Africa’s industrialization
Togo’s President, Faure Gnassingbe, was in Niamey on November 25, with other African leaders. They gathered for a meeting dedicated to Africa’s industrialization. The meeting follows an extraordinary summit of heads of State and government of the African Union (AU) on the AfCFTA.
In Niger, the leaders examined new policies to speed up Africa’s industrialization and strengthen the growth of regional chains of value.
"Industrialization and the free flow of value-added products on an integrated market are essential for our development," said Faure Gnassingbé on his arrival in Niamey.
A day before, November 24, Kodjo Adedze, Togo’s Minister of Trade, revealed the country’s progress in terms of industrialization, during the Review of economic transformation policies. Adedze especially talked about a site, at the Industrial Platform of Adetikope (PIA), that will receive several companies, with about 20 deals already sealed.
Esaïe Edoh
In a recent hearing, Faure Gnassingbé talks Togo’s economic development with Ecobank’s new MD
Faure Gnassingbe, the Togolese President, gave an audience to Ecobank’s new Managing Director, Jeremy Awari, last Thursday, November 24. According to the Togolese presidency, the Kenyan was part of a delegation from the banking group that its board president, Alain Nkontchou, led.
During the meeting, Jeremy Awari reiterated Ecobank’s ambition to bolster its partnership with Togo; notably, it wants to support the country’s economic development strategy, the Presidency reported.
"We have discussed with the Head of State, the partnership between Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) and Togo. We have an ongoing, fluid, and important relationship with Togo, which is home to Ecobank's headquarters and most of our management. We would like more than ever to play the role of capital provider and support to the Togolese economy which is doing well given everything that is happening in the region," said Alain Nkontchou, at the end of the hearing.
The new MD of Ecobank was announced last September. He takes the place of the Nigerian Ade Ayeyemi, who was heading the group since 2015 but retired this year.
Based in Lomé, Ecobank is present in 33 African countries.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Climate: Togo seeks to tap more into Green Climate Fund
Lomé hosted an information meeting on the development of projects for the mobilization of climate finance, on 24 November 2022. The meeting was organized in the framework of Togo’s preparation program for accessing the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The organizers were the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the Togolese Ministry of Environment and Forest Resources.
The workshop brought together various climate change experts and actors fighting the phenomenon. The former told the latter about strategies to raise funds they need for their environmental protection projects. Specifically, they were told the requirements needed for accessing the GCF.
To get climate financing, notably the GCF’s funds, applicants need well-prepared projects that meet the criteria set by lenders, since the major roadblock for accessing financing is directly linked to the lack of bankable and economically viable projects, according to the resident representative of the GGGI in Togo, Benin, and Ghana, Innocent Kabenga.
A few days ago, let’s recall, Togo was at the COP27 in Egypt. There, Togolese representatives complained about the reticence of polluting countries to mobilize funds to compensate small polluters that suffer irreparable damage caused by climate change.
Esaïe Edoh
AT2ER seeks companies interested in supplying and installing 70,000 solar-powered light poles in Togo
In Togo, the Agency in charge of Rural Electrification and Renewable Energies (AT2ER) wants to install 70,000 solar street lamps. It launched last week, on Nov 14, a call for expression of interest targeting firms that can pre-finance, install and operate the equipment, under a Public Private Partnership.
"The objective of this pre-qualification process is to define the conditions for pre-qualifying private companies that show an interest in supplying, installing, operating, and maintaining a batch of 70,000 solar streetlights sustainably, under a PPP partnership," AT2ER said.
The call for expressions of interest ends on 14 December 2022.
Let’s emphasize that solar energy has been drawing more and more attention in Togo, in recent years. This week, for example, Togo signed a financing agreement with Abu Dhabi Exports, which will lend the country $25 million to expand Blitta’s solar power plant, the largest in West Africa.
Togo: Sandra Johnson asks for World Bank's IDA20 financing to be increased
Togo wants its share of the IDA20 package raised to better achieve the structural transformation of its economy. Last Monday, November 20, Sandra Ablamba Johnson, Minister, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, and Governor of the World Bank in Togo, asked for the increase. The Togolese official spoke during the launch of consultations in the framework of the elaboration of the new Country Partnership Framework 2023-2027 with the World Bank.
For the Togolese economy to be structurally transformed, “concrete actions with strong impacts on the population must be posed.” That is Sandra Johnson’s opinion.
Thus, when the two sides met on Monday, they defined the priorities of this new cooperation framework in line with Togo’s 2025 government roadmap, taking into account the current global, health, security, and economic crises.
For her part, Coralie Gevers, World Bank Director of Operations for Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea and Togo, reassured that the next country partnership framework would be aligned with the priorities agreed with the Togolese authorities. "The mid-term review of the IDA20 process could enable Togo to get more resources to deal with current crises," she said.
The IDA20 is the 20th replenishment of the resources of the International Development Association (IDA), to support the recovery efforts of countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and their transition to a green, resilient and inclusive development.
Esaïe Edoh
Transport: Lomé just held a seminar on facultative insurance
This week, a facultative insurance seminar was held in Baguida (Lomé). Launched on November 21, the meeting’s theme was: “Regulation of facultative insurance, scope of guarantees, and compensation procedures”. Facultative insurance covers risks to which goods are exposed while being transported (by sea, land, or air).
The seminar was organized by the Supervisory Authority of the insurance sector and the National Directorate of Insurance. It mainly aimed to let concerned stakeholders review the regulatory evolutions in the maritime transport sector.
Among others, these stakeholders acquired knowledge that should help them better understand the ins and outs of facultative insurance management and existing regulation, as well as recent amendments to this regulation.
"The birth of insurance originated in the development of transport, particularly maritime transport, which fostered the emergence of other modes with the development of road, rail, and air routes," explained the Director of Cabinet of the Minister of Economy and Finance, Kossi Tofio.
It is worth noting that Togo wants to become a trade hub in West Africa, notably by leveraging its port’s activity.
Last year, the port of Lomé–West Africa's fourth largest container port–recorded 1,962,304 TEUs, against 1,725,270 TEUs in 2020 (+13.7%).