Togo First
Togo: UNDP grants about CFA100 mln to six civil society organizations
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) granted $141,000 (about CFA95 million) to six Togolese civil society organizations (CSOs) invested in environmental protection. The related agreement was signed last Thursday, in Lomé.
The six CSOs will use the money to launch environmental and natural resource management projects across Togo. The projects, which will be carried out over a year, include the "development of beekeeping and sustainable management of forest resources" in the communes of Kozah 1 and Kozah 3, "capacity building for the production and dissemination of compost in the fight against soil degradation" and "capacity building for the recycling unit of used paper and cardboard into furniture" in the commune of Golfe 7.
Aliou Dia, UNDP Resident Representative in Togo, said the support translates the UN body’s will to help Togo implement its 2020-2025 government roadmap.
"Development without resilience only harms the economy, our projects must contribute to the government roadmap," Dia noted.
For his part, the Togolese Minister of Environment and Forest Resources, Foli-Bazi Katari, urged CSOs to contribute more to the government’s development roadmap.
The six CSOs picked by the UNDP were part of a batch of 60 CSOs that applied to a tender launched by UNDP-Togo as part of the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme (GEF SGP).
Esaïe Edoh
Togo adopts 5-year strategy to deal with corruption
In line with efforts to tackle corruption, Togo recently adopted a five-year strategic plan. Drawn up by the High Authority for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption and Related Offences (HAPLUCIA), the plan was presented on October 13, 2022, in Lomé to the country's various socio-economic actors and technical and financial partners.
The new strategy has three major axes. The first aims to strengthen the legal and institutional framework for the fight against corruption in the country. The second aims to mobilize all actors and sectors of intervention in this fight, and the third focuses on steps that will be taken to bolster integrity, transparency, and quality in public administration.
With this document, Togo is implementing the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which it ratified in July 2005.
According to the Togolese Minister of Human Rights and Relations with Public Institutions, “Togo has undertaken a series of reforms from a normative, institutional, but also a processual point of view to fight against corruption”. “This document allows us today to have an orderly, coordinated, and standardized framework," he added while urging concerned actors to understand the tool so that bribery is dealt with in Togo.
Esaïe Edoh
Faure Gnassingbé meets with World Bank’s boss, David Malpass
President Gnassingbé met with David Malpass, president of the World Bank, last Wednesday in Washington. The Togolese leader was with several members of his government.
Among others, the talks focused on Togo’s development priorities, such as economic growth, economic diversification, cash transfers to help the poor, business climate and its improvement, and digitalization. Emphasis was put on agriculture, mining, climate change, and insecurity which keeps rising in West Africa.
During the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the World Bank, David Malpass reiterated the Bank’s support to Togo, through commitments and IDA projects. Malpass added that the new partnership framework will help support Togo’s development priorities more.
A day before meeting Malpass, Faure Gnassingbé met with IMF’s chief, Kristalina Georgieva.
Togo: Overall traffic at the port of Lomé slumps by 6% in H1 2022
Traffic at the port of Lomé slumped by 6% over the first six months of this year, according to official sources.
Though Togolese authorities did not explain the decline, it could be due to higher freight costs worldwide, pushed by inflation, the Ukrainian war, plus the disruption of production tools and logistics chains. Indeed, these various factors caused economic operators to postpone their investment and shipping decisions.
The port of Lomé is the only deep-water port, in West Africa, where large ships dock for coastal shipping to other ports. Also, it is the leading platform for transshipment in the Gulf of Guinea. Last year, transshipment accounted for nearly 70% of the volumes handled at the port’s terminals. Thus, the decrease in overall traffic could also be due to a decline in transshipment activity
The decrease could also be viewed as a correction of 2021, a record year for the port of lomé as the global economy recovered strongly that year. Lomé Container Terminal, a subsidiary of MSC, which operates the main container terminal, said that it achieved a record 1,128,978 containers in 2021; the figure equals 1,635,620 TEUs handled. Overall, the Port itself had broken its records in all segments: transit, import-export, and transshipment.
It should be noted that while overall traffic at the port of Lomé fell in the first half of 2022, volumes of goods shipped and received rose by 10.8% and 19.3%, respectively, over the same period.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
President Gnassibgé talks financing development projects with IMF’s MD, Kristalina Georgia
Togolese President Faure Gnassingbé met with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, on October 12, 2022, in Washington, D.C. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the Bretton Woods financial institutions.
According to the Togolese presidency, the two personalities discussed the financing of development actions, especially to help Togo cushion the impact of the current global crises which greatly affected the cost of living.
The Togolese economy, which is resilient, will be supported by development partners to maintain the momentum of inclusive growth, said the Togolese presidency.
During the IMF’s annual meeting, which is set to end on October 16, President Gnassinbgé will speak on key issues and talk with several personalities and representatives of organizations that cooperate with Togo.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo wants to raise more money on the WAEMU market than it initially intended to in 2022
The Togolese government scaled how much it wants to raise on the regional money market this year. Initially, Lomé was looking to get CFA533 billion from this market but it has now set sight on CFA663 billion, which is CFA130 billion or 24% more.
The revision aims to cover the government’s new budget expenses. Indeed, the budget, which now stands at CFA1,872 billion, is up by 5.4% - an increase that should help Togo better cope with the current global economic crisis. However, according to Victoire Tomegah-Dogbe, Prime Minister of Togo, the budget increase should produce no new taxes.
Regardless, This seems like a break in the budgetary rigor observed by the government since its last program with the IMF. This is a far cry from the time when Togo was the only country to meet all the WAEMU convergence criteria–in November 2019.
In 2022, the budget deficit is expected to reach 8.4% of GDP against 5.1% in the initial forecasts. The Prime Minister attributes the deficit’s widening to “new spending to meet security requirements and social spending that has been increased to protect the purchasing power of households, especially the most vulnerable.”
Concretely, the increase in spending is mostly due to new investments, not included in the public investment program, and to current transfers, which should grow by 612% and 42%, respectively.
Last month, the government announced a battery of social measures, which, according to PM Tomegah-Dogbe, should cost the State CFA67.3 billion. In a context where inflation keeps rising, borrowing on the regional market seems the best solution to finance the measures.
So far this year, Togo secured around CFA400 billion on the WAEMU’s market. On October 14, it plans to raise CFA30 billion more–its first operation this quarter.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: the new country representatives of the High Commission for Togolese Abroad are now known
The 48 new representatives of the High Commission for Togolese Abroad (HCTA) are now known. The HCTA’s electoral commission revealed their names yesterday, October 12, in Lomé.
The new representatives will take office in December 2022 for a three-year term ending in 2025. Throughout the period, they will take steps that will boost the diaspora’s contribution to Togo’s development.
"Your expertise, your vision, and the challenges you intend to tackle, in line with the commitments made, should remain at the heart of your actions throughout the term, to respond effectively to the role assigned to the country delegates of the HCTE," Victor Womitso, chairman of the HCTA’s electoral commission, told the new representatives.
The 48 representatives will spread across Africa (22 of them), Europe (14), the Americas and the Caribbean (5), and Asia-Oceania (7). Out of the 157,188 Togolese expatriates registered at the HCTA, 144,659 or 92.3% of them took part in the polls to elect the new delegates.
Set up in 2019, the HCTA serves as a bridge between Togo’s government and its diaspora. It represents and brings together Togolese living outside the country, but also defends their rights in the countries where they live.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo: Emmanuel Adebayor’s Foundation and UNDP team up to support over 1,000 agropreneurs
Yesterday, in Kpalimé, the UNDP and the Sheyi Emmanuel Adebayor Foundation (SEA) signed a partnership to ensure socio-professional incubation and insertion of youth into agribusiness.
Collaborating with Tové’s agricultural training institute (INFA), the two partners will provide theoretical and practical support to the youth, and help them draw their business projects in the fishing and sylvo-pastoral sectors.
The partnership will last three years and should impact more than 1,000 youth and women, according to the UNDP and SEA.
"We have a challenge to overcome. Together, we would produce and process agricultural products, locally, for food self-sufficiency in African countries: this is my commitment and that of the SEA Foundation’s," said the former Togolese soccer star and president of the SEA Foundation, Emmanuel Adebayor.
For his part, the UNDP Resident Representative in Togo, Aliou Dia, welcomed an "agreement that is part of the implementation of the second axis of the Togo 2025 government roadmap."
Esaïe Edoh
Cosmetics: Togo, a top source for ECOWAS countries
Togo is a go-to source for other ECOWAS countries, when it comes to beauty products: lipsticks, mascara, wigs, beards, eyebrows, locks, etc. Every month, hundreds of traders flock to Lomé (Togo’s capital) to stock up on these products.
According to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic and Demographic Studies (INSEED), beauty products make up 10% of Togo's exports, with an estimated value of 70 billion CFA francs. In the first quarter of this year alone, the country exported over 6,000 tons of cosmetics and related products for a total of CFA17 billion or 11% of total export earnings. In Q4 2021, cosmetic exports earned Togo over CFA21 billion.
Togo mostly sells cosmetics to ECOWAS countries, with Benin, Ghana, Burkina, Mali, and Niger being its biggest customers.
"Beauty or make-up products and skincare preparations (not drugs), including anti-sun and tanning products; products for manicures or pedicures," accounted for 8.5% of Togo's exports to ECOWAS countries in the first half of 2022.
"Wigs, beards, eyebrows, eyelashes, locks and similar articles of hair, hair or textile materials; works of hair" made up over 6.7% of exports to the same states over the same period.
Then there were "Braiding materials, plaits and similar articles of plaiting materials, n.e.s., woven or parallelized flat, finished or not" which represented 2.9% of shipments to the ECOWAS’ other 14 member countries.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: 3,450 new businesses registered in Q3 2022
In the previous quarter, 3,450 new businesses were registered at the Center for Business Formalities of Togo (CFE). This is 1.3% lower than the figure reported by the CFE last year, over the same period: 3,495.
In detail, out of the 3,450 businesses registered in Q3 2022, 2,897 were registered by Togolese and the rest by foreigners. Relative to the men-to-women ratio, 2,508 businesses were registered by men and 942 by women.
Adding last quarter’s performance to that of the first half of the year, a total of 10,645 businesses have been registered at the CFE. That is also 1.5% lower than the figure reported in 2021, over the first nine months of the year: 10,806.
Throughout 2021, 13,770 new businesses were created in Togo according to the CFE’s results. This figure was up by 9% compared to the 12,500 businesses registered in 2020.
Esaïe Edoh