The EU delegation in Togo announced on October 24, 2022, that it will provide €30 million (about CFA19 billion) to Togo to better fight climate change.

The package, whose agreement will be signed at the end of this week, was disclosed in Lomé during the diplomatic week on climate. It will help implement the Climate Change Support Program (CCSP)

In detail, part of the funds will be used to build  11 monitoring posts in the Fazao Malfakassa National Park and in the Abdoulaye Wildlife Reserve, and the Mono Biosphere Reserve, 120 km of tracks, and rehabilitate 150 km of roads.

The rest will be used to set up mini solar plants in various parts of Togo. 

The CCSP’s pilot phase was launched in 2017 to help Togo fight climate change. The  EU invested slightly more than €10 million in that phase.

Esaïe Edoh 

Togo’s fifth General Census of Population and Housing (RGPH-5) started on October 23, 2022. The official launching ceremony was chaired on October 24, by the minister of state, Payadowa Boukpessi.

"The results of this national and scientific operation are of great importance to the government," he said while urging them to provide the agents with all the information they might need. 

Around 14,500 agents will be deployed across the country for the census, which is set to last three weeks (it ends on November 12).

The census has two objectives: the first is to update the country’s demographic and socio-economic figures and the second is to build a new database that will contribute to the 2025 development roadmap. Thus, besides the census, many other activities have been carried out, such as census mapping (which has made it possible to geolocate 74,000 basic socio-collective infrastructures) and information and awareness-raising meetings for the various stakeholders (members of parliament, local elected officials, the private sector, traditional chiefs, among others).

This RGPH-5 required a budget of more than 8 billion FCFA, financed by the State and its technical and financial partners, including UNFPA.

The World Bank wants to help Togo bolster agricultural mechanization, via its West Africa Food System Resilience Program (FSRP). 

The initiative aims to provide tractors and agricultural machinery, power tillers, graders, and accessories for its partner structures in the country. To this end, the ministry of agriculture launched a call for tenders to recruit people who can provide the needed equipment within five months.  

Additional information regarding the tender is available in Togo Presse (the October 24th issue). The deadline for submitting applications is December 2, 2022, at 9 AM.

The West Africa Food System Resilience Program (FSRP) is backed by the World Bank which pumped $570 million into it. The program covers Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, in its first phase.

This year, Togo will host the SITA, the International Exhibition of African Textiles. This edition, the eighth, will be held in Lomé from November 4 to 6. Last year, it was held in Djibouti. 

The theme picked for the upcoming exhibition is “The fabric industry in Africa”. 

Among others, it will feature workshops, conferences, expos, parades, and fashion galas. 

A few days ago, the ministry of culture launched a process to select the designers who will represent the nation at the SITA.

Togo was chosen to host the event due to its government’s efforts to make the capital a regional hub for clothing; efforts that will support local processing of the cotton grown in the country.

Let’s recall that a few weeks ago, the very first “Made in Togo” clothes, made with Togolese cotton, were unveiled at the Industrial Platform of ADétikopé. Their sales should begin by January 2023.

Esaïe Edoh

Launched in October 2017, Togo’s School Assur Program has provided 3,343,717 health services to students in Togo as of October 20, 2022, according to data provided by the government.

Over the period, the program has allowed 1,244,240 consultations and 17,217 hospitalizations of students suffering from various diseases, while the number of surgeries recorded is estimated at 55,168; 360,947 tests were performed and 1,666,145 pharmaceutical services were recorded.

Last year, in August, the number of services provided was 2,615,962. Between August 2021 and October 2022, the program helped cover 727,755 health operations.  

The School Assur Program was extended twice, in 2020 and 2021. Initiated by Togo’s President, it aims to boost social protection by offering free health services to students in public primary and secondary schools.

Esaïe Edoh

In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the implementation of rules related to the harmonization of standards and procedures for the control of the gauge, weight, and axle load of heavy goods vehicles will start being implemented on January 1, 2024.  This was decided last Friday by the Union’s ministers of infrastructure and road transport. On the same day, the officials– gathered in Lomé–adopted the legislation to implement the regulation.

Enforcing the regulation will, according to the Commissioner for Transport of the Union, Jonas Gbian, help materialize the international practice of axle load control.

"This regulation will guarantee the protection of road assets, the reduction of road network maintenance costs, and the improvement of road safety," he said.

Joaquin Tasso Villalonga, Ambassador of the European Union (EU) whose institution supports the State’s implementation of the regulation, urged each country to put in place efficient policies and strategies for developing the road transport sector.

The ministers, for their part, called on stakeholders to promote a strong political impetus for the full and concurrent implementation of the regulation.

As a reminder, the regulation is a device decided in 2005 by the WAEMU Council of Ministers to limit overloading on roads in the Member States.

 Esaïe Edoh 

Last Thursday, October 20,  the Togolese parliament adopted the draft amending finance law, for the fiscal year 2022. The country’s budget now stands at CFA1,874.5 billion, against CFA1,779.2 billion initially (+5.4%). 

The government attributes the amendment to security issues, including the terrorist threat, and global inflation due to which the authorities had to take palliative measures, that were not accounted for in the finance law adopted in December 2021.

"The changes to the budget were necessary to take into account new spending to meet security issues and social spending, to protect the purchasing power of households, especially vulnerable groups, as well as the readjustment of certain expenditures, following regular monitoring of their level of implementation," said Togo's Minister of Economy and Finance, Sani Yaya.

On September 16, 2022, the President of Togo announced new social measures to make life easier for his people, as the cost of living kept surging. These measures should cost the State about CFA100 billion.

With the amended budget adopted, the government will be able to “continue supporting all socio-professional layers, the most vulnerable especially, in line with the first axis of its roadmap which aims to bolster inclusion and social harmony, and consolidate peace in the country.”

Besides, the government should keep introducing structural reforms to ensure macroeconomic stability and improve public finances.

Togo’s treasury, it should be noted, raised CFA802 billion in the first half of this year; to cover public expenditures, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which recently published the "State Budget Execution Report, Fiscal Year 2022 End of June." 

Esaïe Edoh 

The UK will guarantee a major road construction project in Togo with £68.6 million (CFA51.69 billion). The road is the Sokode-Tchamba-Kambole axis and is located in the north. It is 76.5 km long and connects Togo to the Republic of Benin. 

The guarantee will be provided via UK Export Finance (UKEF), in support of a loan from the Japanese bank MUFG. The UK government revealed these details last Wednesday, October 19, on the sidelines of the very first Franco-British forum on trade and investment in West and Central Africa (held on October 19 and 20) and on the eve of Togo’s Flag Raising ceremony as a member of the Commonwealth. 

“This project is part of Togo's broader road infrastructure plan,” said Rose Kayi Mivedor, Togo's Minister of Investment Promotion, who attended the forum. “Our government continues to make strategic investments in infrastructure to build and maintain a road network that not only moves people and goods but also stimulates growth in the cities involved,” she added.

For his part, James Duddridge, the British Minister of Trade, said the project will accelerate intra-African trade, open up routes to dynamic markets, and unlock £47 million of British exports to the region.

The new guarantee is part of a £174.4 million package described by London as "historic funding" granted to Togo and Benin, in the wake of Togo's entry into CommonWealth.

The UKEF is the world’s first export credit agency. One of its main conditions for providing guarantees is that most related contracts go to UK exporters. Its support to Togo, according to the UK government, “confirms the soundness and viability of the [road construction] project”, and  “thanks to its expertise, the parties have been able to put in place an affordable financing solution that will make this priority project a success for Togo's economy.”

It should be remembered that UKEF's role is also to ensure that a large proportion of contracts are awarded to British companies as a condition of its support.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

After Mahajanga (Madagascar), Dschang (Cameroon), and Bouaké (Ivory Coast), Lomé is the latest city to benefit from Africompost, a waste-recycling project that is financed by the French Development Agency (AFD). 

This week, AFD said it pumped €200,000 (over CFA 131 million) into the project. In effect, the project involves setting up new facilities for improving the treatment and recycling of Lomé’s waste. The town, let’s emphasize, produces around 350,000 t of domestic waste every year.

While the money will be provided to Gelavor, the French NGO that implements the project, the new composting facilities will be managed by civil society organizations (CSOs). The latter will sensitize the population and sell compost, and other transformed products such as plastic cups and paving stones, to local farmers.

The commune of Lomé is a partner in the project, and ENPRO, an association created in 1999 is the local operator in charge of pre-collecting the waste and its composting. 

The Africompost project will be carried out over three years.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi