Togo First
Kara Agropolis: APRODAT seeks new standards for food and agricultural products
Through its agency for the promotion and development of agropoles (Aprodat), Togo seeks to adopt new standards for food and agricultural products. The project aligns with the Togo Agri-Food Transformation Project (PTA-TOGO) and, especially, the development of the Kara agropolis, supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB).
In line with the ambition, Aprodat has launched a call for tenders to pick a consultant to perform the task.
The consultant picked will assess all legislative, regulatory, and institutional texts, good practices, and existing guides, related to animal production and processing.
They will also identify and recommend draft legislative and regulatory texts, standards for implementing farm equipment, specifications, and guides to good agricultural and processing practices applicable to the poultry, fish, and vegetable sectors (rice, sesame, peanuts, and soybeans), in Togo.
All the specifications and eligibility requirements are available in the national daily newspaper (Togo - Presse N° 11384, September 28, 2022 issue).
Bids must be submitted latest by October 6, 2022.
The Kara Agropolis project is one of the country's flagship initiatives in terms of agricultural transformation in Togo. Launched in 2019, this pilot project secured CFA40 billion in financial support, from various backers, including the AfDB.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo keeps improving financial inclusion performances
Financial inclusion keeps improving in Togo. This is shown in a report that was published on September 28, 2022, by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). The document is titled "Tableau de bord l'Inclusion financière dans l'UEMOA au titre de l'année 2021" (Financial Inclusion Scoreboard in WAEMU for the year 2021).
According to the Central Bank, Togo’s strict bancarisation rate (the number of natural persons holding deposit or credit accounts in banks, postal services, savings banks, and the Treasury, as a proportion of the adult population) rose from 27% in 2020 to 30.1% in 2021, an annual increase of 11%.
Regarding the broad bancarisation rate, which takes into account financial services in the broad sense such as mobile money accounts and microfinance, it rose from 80% in 2020 to 84.2% last year, according to the same source.
Over the same period, the overall demographic penetration rate of financial services, which measures the total number of financial service outlets in the country as a proportion of the adult population, increased from 50% to 67%.
For Togo, this marks an evolution in financial inclusion over the decade. According to the BCEAO, the synthetic index of financial inclusion has more than tripled in ten years, rising from 0.204 to 0.626 in 2021.
In the country, this positive trend is driven by several mechanisms, including postal services (Eco CCP in particular), mobile money, mobile banking, and the democratization of microfinance companies. The National Fund for Inclusive Finance (FNFI) also played a role in the shift. Since it launched, about half a decade ago, the Fund gave out over CFA100 billion in loans, covering about 1.7 million beneficiaries who had to open accounts.
Earlier this month, the Togolese government announced the creation of an observatory on the quality of financial services to "support and encourage the progress noted" in terms of financial inclusion.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Lomé to host African reinsurance forum in a few days
From October 1 to 5, 2022, Lomé will host the 26th edition of the African Reinsurance Forum. The event will be organized by the African Insurance Organization (AIO) and be themed "Sustainable growth: the role of African reinsurers in economic growth and development".
The forum will gather several actors in the insurance sector, such as Karim Diarrasouba, CEO, CICA-RE, Corneille Karekezi, CEO of Africa Re Group and Adama Ndiaye, CEO of the Senegalese Reinsurance Company (SENRE), who will be panelists.
According to Simon-Pierre Gouem, President of the Local Organizing Committee, panels held should help "emulate a real insurance and reinsurance industry that is strong, accessible and modern to face the socio-economic challenges that humanity is facing."
Launched in 1972, in Mauritius, the AIO’s goal is to develop a healthy insurance industry in Africa and promote inter-African cooperation in insurance and reinsurance.
For more information:
https://africaninsurance-events.org/
Esaïe Edoh
Investment: Germany to help Togo make its private sector more competitive
Germany will support investment projects in Togo as part of its new partnership framework with the West African country. Recently, GIZ Resident Director Inge Baumgarten and Togo's Minister of Investment Promotion, Rose Kayi Mivedor-Sambiani, discussed the upcoming implementation of the Promotion of Private Sector Competitiveness in Togo (ProComp) program.
This program aims to improve the business climate and investment through the strengthening of agro-industrial transformation and its value chains. It will be implemented through five (05) components.
The Ministry of Investment Promotion will play a key role in the program’s fourth component. The latter will support sustainable investments.
According to Rose Mivedor, ProComp will greatly help the Togolese government. Indeed, Lomé has, over the past few years, been supporting the private sector, counting on it as a vector for the funds it needs for projects and reforms that are part of the Togo 2025 development roadmap.
Esaïe Edoh
Nearly a million tourists came to Togo in 2021
In 2021, 983,969 tourists visited Togo, compared to 481,706 in 2020 when the country had been hit by Covid and related measures.
The Minister of tourism, Gbenyo Lamadokou, disclosed the figures on the eve of World Tourism Day.
Togolese tourism is thus recovering, same as other countries worldwide - thanks to travel resumption and the relaxation of most health measures.
Besides the number of visitors, Togo’s tourism revenues also rose, from CFA19 billion in 2020 to CFA25 billion last year, up 34%. For Minister Lamadokou, "this result is, on the one hand, attributable to the government, which through the gradual deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine, the adoption of several measures and the easing of restrictions on travel, has helped restore consumer confidence for the takeoff of tourism, and on the other hand, to the Togolese people who have shown a renewed interest in travel within their beautiful country.”
Let’s recall that in 2018, a good year for Togolese tourism, the country received 712,000 tourists, and hospitality revenues stood at CFA48 billion.
Octave A. Bruce
Togo launches a new platform to promote its tourism industry
Togo just launched a new platform to promote its tourism sector. The digital portal, Togo Tourism, was presented today (September 27), by the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Dr. Gbenyon Lamadokou, as the country celebrated World Tourism Day.
The platform, according to the Minister, will provide "real-time information" on the offers and opportunities for tourism in Togo. In parallel, an agency will be set up to oversee tourism operators in Togo and boost the quality of tourism services.
The year, the theme of World Tourism Day is “Rethinking tourism”. An official celebration ceremony was held at the University of Lomé (UL).
Tourism is, according to the associated ministry, a very important sector for Togo. Because the country wants to attract more investors, become an international hub, and be a preferred destination for business tourists.
In 2021, the sector generated CFA25 billion in revenue, for 983,969 tourists who visited the country, against 481,706 in 2020 (ed. note: Covid hit the country and the sector that year).
Visit: Togo tourisme
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo and the United Nations System prepare their 2023-2026 Cooperation Framework
The UN System and Togo are redefining their 2023-2026 country partnership framework for sustainable development. The two partners met in Lomé on September 27, 2022, with civil society actors, in this framework. They looked for indicators that can help define the objectives and achievements for this future partnership framework.
The UN wishes for the new framework to enable more social inclusion and human development, focusing on the most vulnerable populations.
On Twitter, the institution said the framework would be "an opportunity to further promote social inclusion through indicators targeting the specific condition of people at risk of being left behind. An opportunity to discuss the global indicators to be retained for the annual report to #ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, editor's note)."
As a reminder, the latest United Nations Cooperation Framework for Sustainable Development aims to frame the collaboration between the United Nations System and Togo over four years.
The current framework covers the period 2019-2023, with the ambition to support Togo in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by focusing on the government’s development priorities.
World Bank’s portfolio in Togo could be increased by $1 billion
The World Bank may increase its financial support to Togo by a billion dollars. The institution’s new resident representative revealed the information last Thursday, September 22. According to the Togolese Presidency, this was during a meeting between the representative, Fily Sissoko, and President Faure Gnassingbé.
"With the significant efforts that Togo has made in recent years, we have a portfolio that has quadrupled to nearly $900 million in various sectors," said Fily Sissoko. "In the coming years, we intend to increase this envelope with funding of between $800 million and $1 billion to accelerate the implementation of the government's roadmap in key areas of social protection to help the most vulnerable populations," he added.
During the meeting, President Gnassingbé laid out his country's ambitions and the top sectors where the Bank should bolster its support, in line with the Togo 2025 government roadmap. Especially support for social and human capital development.
"The President of the Republic did me the great honor of receiving me at the beginning of my mission in Togo. We discussed mechanisms to accelerate access to basic infrastructure and support human capital development," said the new Resident Representative.
In detail, the World Bank's portfolio in Togo has increased from $236.8 million in 2018 to $917.5 million in investments in 2022. This portfolio covers various development sectors including human capital, infrastructure, and economic and social reforms.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
BOAD approves CFA200 billion for rapid emergency actions
The West African Development Bank (BOAD) greenlit the disbursement of CFA200 billion for an emergency rapid impact program for its member countries. It did so on September 20, 2022, during a board meeting.
SONGTAAGBA 2022-2024 is the name of the program on which the funds will be spent (“Songtaaba” is a Moré word meaning “help in difficult times”). The program, according to the BOAD, aims to improve the living standards of WAEMU populations and make the region more resilient to current shocks.
This involves "contributing to the implementation of the National Crisis Response Plans (NRP) and the G5 Sahel Emergency Development Program (UDP).”
The recently-approved facility will also help WAEMU States “quickly” make funds available, in one or more installments, to deal with urgent issues; issues such as food deficit, re-enrolment, and poor access to basic health.
The financing comes in a context where the people of the region have to deal with more inflation and insecurity. There is also the global hike in oil prices which reduced the purchasing power of people. In this regard, Togo and many other States recently announced several social measures to alleviate these pressures.
Including this latest financing, the BOAD’s commitments since it launched in 1976 now exceed 7,000 billion CFA (across all its operations).
Besides the BOAD’s recent financing, Togo approved, a few days ago, 10 financing projects.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo will hold the 3rd edition of the Consuming Local Month in October
The third edition of the “Mois du Consommer Local” (Consuming Local Month) will be held next month. The ministry of trade and local consumption announced this on Wednesday, September 21.
"Dear producers, promoters of local products, goods, and services, the 3rd edition of the Consuming Local Month promises to be filled with great opportunities for each of you. Together, let's continue the tradition by consuming more Togolese products," tweeted the ministry.
This is the third consecutive year that the event will be held. The first edition was launched on October 25, 2019.
Like the two previous editions, this one is also sponsored by the WAEMU. It specifically aims to get people to adopt local products and services more. It also aims to boost trade within the WAEMU and consolidate the region’s common market.
Esaïe Edoh