Yesterday, Jan. 17, the Council for Foreign Economic Relations of Turkey (DEIK) and the National Council of Employers of Togo (CNP-Togo) signed a memorandum of understanding to boost their economic cooperation. 

The MoU was signed during “Togo day”, a virtual conference organized by the Togolese ministry for investment promotion and the Turkish embassy. Its goal is to dynamize relations between businesses from both countries.

The agreement will also help increase trade according to Kayi Mivedor, the minister of investment promotion of Togo.

"I take the opportunity of this event to invite the Ministry of Trade of Turkey to establish a working committee with all stakeholders in our respective countries, for the materialization of the Togo - Turkey Investment Forum, as envisaged during the Togo - Turkey political consultations that took place in 2022," Mivedor added.

Togo and Turkey have been working on bolstering their relationship for some years now. In April 2021, Turkey opened its embassy in the African country, and in October, of the same year, the Turkish President visited. During his stay in Togo, several agreements were signed to boost the relationship between the two countries.

Esaïe Edoh

Togolese holding a diplomatic passport no longer need a visa to travel to Serbia and vice versa. The ministers of foreign affairs of both countries signed an agreement to this end on January 16, 2023. The document was signed in Serbia.

"I have strengthened the ties of friendship and cooperation between Togo and Serbia through the signing today, with my colleague and friend Ivicom DAČIĆEM, First Deputy Prime Minister, of an agreement on the abolition of visas for our fellow citizens, holders of diplomatic passports,"Robert Dussey, Togo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote in a tweet. 

Besides the no-visa agreement, the two countries plan to set up a Togo-Serbia parliamentary friendship group.

The two nations also intend to boost their cooperation in the agricultural, education, and investment sectors.

Esaïe Edoh 

Togo will organize the 9th pan-African congress of Lomé in 2024. Though the exact date is still unknown, its theme is: "Renewal of Pan-Africanism and Africa's place in global governance: mobilizing resources and reinventing ourselves for action." 

Robert Dussey, the Togolese minister of foreign affairs made the announcement last week, after a forum that he co-chaired in Morocco. 

The upcoming pan-African conference will take place in the framework of the African roots decade. The latter is a Togolese initiative with 15 member countries at the moment. Its goal is to make members of the African diaspora key actors in the continent’s development. 

According to the Togolese government, the conference will be “a privileged opportunity for Africans living on the continent and outside it (the diaspora and Afro-descendants) to question themselves about their human, political, cultural, social and societal future, in an increasingly unstable world, lacking collective responsibility and collective governance involving Africa.” 

"African countries will have to think about how to invent a form of human association, political organization, and new visions to define what they want and can do for themselves and by themselves alongside other major players in the global economy and the international political scene," the same source added.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Starting tomorrow, Lomé will host a two-day parliamentary conference on the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. During the meeting, participants will explore possibilities for cooperation between parliamentarians, youth NGOs, and civil society organizations (CSOs), in line with the event’s theme.

There will be over 250 participants including presidents of national assemblies, representatives of African parliaments, youth NGOs, CSOs, and representatives from UN agencies, and other international organizations.

They will discuss recommendations of the working group set up after Doha’s 2022 conference on emerging threats in Africa.

It should be noted that since November 2021 Togo’s northern region has been dealing with terrorist attacks, a situation that the government takes seriously. 

Tomorrow’s event should be backed by the African Parliamentary Union, the G5 Sahel Inter-Parliamentary Committee, and the Shura Council of the State of Qatar.

Esaïe Edoh

Togo raised far less than it expected for its first issue on the WAEMU market this year. Last Friday, the country’s treasury raised CFA16 billion on the regional market, against CFA30 billion sought. 

The operation, a simultaneous issue of treasury recovery bonds (with different maturities), recorded 10 participants and while the country retained 16 billion, the operation mobilized 26 billion. This corresponds to a coverage rate of 86%. 

In 2022, Togo raised CFA473 billion on the regional money market. That equaled 71% of its annual target: CFA663 billion. 

This year, the country eyes CFA574 billion. The money will serve to finance its budget which stands at CFA1,957 billion.

Esaïe Edoh 

Robert Dussey, Togo’s Minister of foreign affairs, was in Morocco last week to host a forum on the reduction of the costs of remittances sent by the African Diaspora.  Dussey co-hosted the event with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Burrita.

The forum, which is part of the 2021-2031 agenda of the Decade on African Roots and the African Diaspora, focused on mechanisms and tools likely to help boost the flow of money sent by members of the African diaspora to their home countries. It also focused on efforts to cut costs associated with the transfers.

Aligned notably with MDGs and multilateral ambitions to make remittances faster, safer, and less costly for migrants, this meeting comes in particular in a context where the African diaspora makes a significant contribution to the economies of their countries of origin.

"As an indication, remittances to the African continent amounted to 85.9 billion dollars in 2019 and 78.4 billion dollars in 2020 and represent an average contribution of between 7 and 10% of the GDP of our various countries," noted Dussey, whose ministry is also in charge of the Togolese diaspora.

In 2021, remittances to Africa were estimated at more than $150 million–two-thirds of them came from people living on the continent.

The forum included three plenary sessions, respectively themed: "Reduction of remittance costs and contribution of the African diaspora to development and poverty alleviation in Africa through remittances", "Perspectives of remittances from the African diaspora: regulatory and operational framework" and "Digitization of financial services and innovative mechanisms for the reduction of transfer costs".

The conclusions of the forum will be forwarded to the African Union Summit, for the AU to take a decision that will help increase African remittances and cut their costs. The AU Summit is scheduled to take place next month.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The Togolese minister of trade and industry, Kodjo Adedze, and the U.S. ambassador in Togo, Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, met last Thursday,  Jan 12. 

According to the Togolese Ministry of trade, the two talked mostly about the African Growth and Opportunity Act and opportunities for boosting trade between the U.S. and Togo.

Since its introduction, 23 years ago, by President Clinton, and Togo’s adhesion to the Act, very few exporters have been able to take advantage of it to sell to the United States, a market of over 300 million consumers. However, some steps were taken by the Chamber of Commerce of Togo to help local trade actors benefit from the mechanism.

During the recent meeting between Adedze and Fitzsimmons, the U.S. diplomat praised the efforts of the Togolese government, under the leadership of His Excellency Mister Faure Gnassingbe, President of the Togolese Republic, for a dynamic and fluid commercial and industrial partnership between the two countries.

The meeting took place just a few weeks after the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit which was held in Washington and to which President Gnassingbe was invited by Joe Biden. The Summit’s objective was to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Africa.

The African Guarantee Fund (AGF) plans to bolster its action in Togo, especially in terms of financing SMEs/SMIs and promoting green finance. Felix Bikpo, chairman of the Fund’s board of directors exposed the ambition to President Gnassingbe on Jan 10.

During his audience with the Head of State, Bikpo emphasized that the AGF’s plans align with Togo’s new socio-economic development policy that is part of its 2025 roadmap. 

It’s worth noting that the two men met only a few weeks after the Africa Finance Industry Summit (AFIS) was held in Lomé. This is a Summit that gathered leading actors of Africa’s finance industry. 

Established in 2011, the AGF helps SMEs secure funds with more ease, so that they can fully play their role as a growth driver of Africa’s economy. The Fund opened its West African headquarters about two years ago, in Togo. 

The AGF and the Togolese government are partners. They support entrepreneurial actions carried out by women and the youth. They also support job creation and the financing of agricultural value chains. Formerly known as the Gari Fund, the AGF aims to help create 50,000 jobs, by 20225.

Togo’s government recently adopted a bill to boost digital and technological innovation. The bill was passed on January 11, during the council of ministers. 

A “Tech” labeling mechanism

The bill aims to foster the innovation ecosystem in Togo, by creating a labeling mechanism for startups and companies in the Tech industry. According to the authorities, this labeling will be done based on objective criteria that integrate "creativity, innovation, creation of high added value, as well as growth potential."

Once the parliament approves it, the law will help set up an environment favorable to “the modernization of the Togolese economy.” It will do so mainly by supporting digital projects, both in the public and private sectors, ”for the good of the people and businesses.”

Tax and customs incentives

The bill should also enable the establishment of a regime of tax and customs incentives, to facilitate the development and adoption of digital technologies. There will also be “measures favoring the emergence of Togolese technological startups.”

Though it has few big tech startups, Togo still has a certain number of tech startups, such as SEMOA, a fintech that provides mobile-banking and digital ticketing services in Togo and abroad, or DizzitUp, a recent finalist of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Between August 2021 and December 2022, the government of Togo poured around CFA 2 billion into the WEZOU program, against a forecast of CFA3 billion for the scheme’s first year of operation. Mamissilé Akla Agba Assih, Minister Delegate in charge of Universal Access to Health Care, presented the assessment to the Council of Ministers on, January 11, 2023.

The money covered the healthcare services–over 1.3 million in all–of about 290,000 women over nearly a year and a half. These services included 281,796 prenatal consultations and 148,275 deliveries performed over the period.

The government claimed that the figures reflect "the support of the population and the medical sector" for this program. The latter, Lomé added, has helped boost social protection, at a time when the authorities plan on launching universal health insurance.

The WEZOU program covers pregnant women and newborns with the main goal of reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.

Esaïe Edoh