The World Food Program (WFP) recently said it will help Togo boost its food production, in line with efforts to guarantee food security in West Africa, and the hinterland especially. Last Wednesday, Oct. 19, the deputy executive director of the UN branch,  Joyce Kanyangwa Luma, met with Togo’s PM, Victoire Tomégah-Dogbé, to discuss the matter.

"Togo plays a very important part in the food security of the West African sub-region. Around 100,000 tons of food products pass through here each year to the Sahel. Our talk allowed us to reflect with the Togolese government on how to ensure, permanently, this vital need for the hinterland,” the UN official said after the meeting.

According to Kanyangwa Luma, WFP picked Togo because of “the government’s efforts to bolster food security and fight hunger.”

A few months ago, Togo adopted the WFP’s strategic country plan to ensure food security. This is a plan that integrates a school feeding program backed by the organization. 

Esaïe Edoh

Togo’s President, Faure Gnassingbé, and England’s King Charles III, met yesterday, Oct. 20, in London. The two men mainly talked about peace, democracy, and sustainable development.

“We reaffirmed a common commitment to continue our efforts to promote peace, democracycy, and sustainable development,” Faure Gnassingbé wrote on Twitter.

Je me réjouis de la qualité de l'entretien que j'ai eu, ce jeudi 20.10.2022, avec Sa Majesté le roi Charles lll à #BuckinghamPalace.

Nous avons réaffirmé un engagement commun à poursuivre nos efforts pour la promotion de la paix, de la démocratie et du développement durable. pic.twitter.com/km5DQ4ruxv

— Faure E. GNASSINGBÉ (@FEGnassingbe) October 20, 2022

This is the second time in two months that Gnassingbé visits England. This time, he was there for the official flag-raising ceremony of the Togolese flag at the Commonwealth headquarters. The West African country became the 56th member of the political association last June. 

Esaïe Edoh

The government of Togo wishes to make expropriation procedures less costly and simpler. In this framework, the Council of Ministers of October 17 evaluated a draft bill to amend the land and property code.  

"Indeed, the implementation of these procedures has revealed too much complexity and a prohibitive cost for the state," the government wrote in a statement. "In order to address this situation, this draft bill aims to amend the legislation governing the implementation of emergency procedures to institute more simplified formalities and shorter deadlines," it adds.

The amendment, according to the same source, which will be enacted only if greenlit by parliament, aligns with Lomé’s ambition to "accelerate the development of national projects" that require land resources. 

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

A terrorist attack will be simulated in Lomé’s administrative district next Thursday, October 20. The ministry of security and civil protection made the announcement in a statement issued on October 17, 2022.

The upcoming exercise is "part of the training of security forces, devoted to specialized intervention techniques," according to the note signed by Brigadier General Yark Damehane, the minister of security. The Brigadier General then called on the population "not to give in to panic during this period."

While this is not the first time such an operation takes place, this time, it is organized in a context where the government is increasingly concerned about the threat to security that looms over the country.

Indeed, on several occasions, terrorists carried out attacks and were pushed back, in the northern part of Togo, near the border with Burkina Faso to be exact. Subsequently, the emergency state declared earlier this year in the Savanes region was extended on September 6, for six months.

After landing the Threshold program, currently underway, Togo keeps striving to secure the Compact next. The latter, let’s emphasize, is the most important support mechanism of the American Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

Last Thursday, Oct. 13, Togo’s President, Faure Gnassingbé, met MCC’s Executive Director Alice Albright. The two parties took the opportunity to review the progress of the partnership between Togo and MCC.

According to the Togolese presidency, Albright took stock of Togo’s achievements in serval areas that contribute to governance improvement. These achievements, the same source added, “align with the evaluation indicators of the scorecard for eligibility for the Compact program of the Millennium Challenge Account.”

The MCC Compact is a large five-year grant offered to an eligible country to fund specific programs aimed at reducing poverty and stimulating economic growth. Under the Threshold Program (a smaller MCC grant), Togo is receiving CFA20 billion in support from the U.S. Department of State to implement reform projects, particularly in the ICT and land sectors.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

In the past three years, the State’s Support Fund for Territorial Collectivities (FACT) spent nearly CFA15 billion on local municipalities. The minister of territorial administration disclosed this during the council of ministers held in Lomé on October 17.

"These funds made it possible to carry out collective social works even if there are still challenges regarding the optimal use of these resources," the council’s report indicates.

Regarding how the funds will be distributed to territorial collectivities next year, the source said the dispatch will be based on “criteria that take into account the poverty index, the area, and the number of inhabitants".

Poorest municipalities come first

The poorest communities will get more funds than those that have more means.

Besides this detail, the State said it will set up a National Agency for Territorial Collectivities Training (ANFCT). The Agency will train local elects and staff of territorial collectivities, as well as State agents involved in the decentralization process.

As a reminder, back in 2019, Togo’s new municipalities raised CFA21.4 billion in own resources for their financing, mainly in the form of taxes, duties, and fees, instituted by or for local authorities. This record is yet to be beaten.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo retained CFA33 billion out of CFA70 billion raised on the WAEMU-securities market last Friday, Oct. 14. The amount mobilized exceeds the country’s target - CFA30 billion - for the issue of fungible treasury bonds.

The issue, a simultaneous issue, comes shortly after Togo scaled up its fundraising ambitions for the year, due to a 5.4% increase in the budget imputed to global inflation and security threats. 

Now, Togo seeks to get CFA663 billion on the WAEMU market in 2022; that is 24% more than it announced at the start of the year. Out of this, it has already secured CFA400 billion, including last week’s operation. 

Regarding that issue, the bonds have respective maturities of 5 and 7 years, and interest rates of 5.75% and 5.90%.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Sun King, the solar home energy solutions provider, recently revealed it acquired Soleva, an operator and distributor of off-grid solutions active in Togo, among other countries.

Before Sung King bought Soleva, the two businesses were partners on the Cizo project, a rural electrification project initiated by the Togolese presidency. Under their partnership, Soleva distributed the solar kits of Sun King, formerly GreenLight Planet, in Togo. 

Soleva was founded in June 2019, by Charles Sena Ayenu, a Togolese, and Andrew Carter, an Anglo-American. When it launched, the firm said it hoped to sell 300,000 Sun King solar kits over five years. 

Following the acquisition, Sun King, the world’s biggest off-grid solar energy company, said it would keep Soleva’s commitments.

"We are very pleased that Sun King is continuing the mission we began when we founded SOLEVA Togo in 2018, and we wish them great success in serving the underserved population in Togo," said Charles Sena Ayenu and Andrew Carter, co-founders of SOLEVA.

Sun King will now be offering electrification solutions to beneficiaries of the CIZO program with direct operations under the name Soleva. It will distribute two domestic systems in particular, the Home 200X and the Home 500X, which can light up to four rooms, increasing the productive hours in the household. In total, two million Togolese will be equipped with this energy by 2030.

According to Togo's Minister of Energy and Mines, Mawunyo Mila Aziablé, Sun King will "accelerate SOLEVA's efforts to provide solar home systems to rural households in order to achieve the country's goal.”

The CIZO initiative, let’s recall, is a program to extend the grid in Togo, and develop off-grid solar energy, through the sale of solar kits to homes that are in remote parts of the country and by building and operating mini solar plants.

After jumping by 50% in 2021, passenger traffic at Lomé airport kept growing in the first half of 2022. In H1 2022, the number soared by over 40.8%, official sources revealed. Air freight also grew over the period, though very little (+1.8%).

The growth in passenger traffic is attributable to borders reopening, worldwide, and key sectors, like tourism, recovering. Also, in Togo, the main restrictions due to Covid-19 have been gradually lifted since the second quarter of 2021, and the international conference and business travel industry has picked up again. In 2021, 983,969 tourists visited the country, compared to only 481,706 in 2020. 

In addition to all these, the new routes opened by Asky and Ethiopian Airlines also benefit passenger traffic. As a reminder, last June, Ethiopian Airlines launched non-stop flights three times a week between Washington and Lomé (between Washington's Dulles airport and Gnassingbé Eyadema Lomé), then to its base in Addis Ababa. 

Fiacre E. Kakpo