Togo First
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
Innovation & Tech: the First stone of the U-Lab incubator was laid at the University of Lomé
The construction of the U-Lab incubator of the University of Lomé (U.L) has effectively begun, three years after the project was announced. The foundation stone for the facility was laid on September 21, 2022.
The stone laying ceremony was attended by the minister of higher education, Ihou Wateba Majesté, U.L’s chancellor, Komla Dodzi Kokoroko, and the UNDP’s representative, Aliou Dia.
The U-Lab project cost $1.56 million (around CFA1 billion), and it is co-financed by UNDP Togo.
The project, in the form of a PPP (public-private partnership), was born out of the Timbuktoo initiative, launched in early 2022 by the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa. This is an initiative that aims to trigger the startup revolution in Africa, according to UNDP Togo.
Countries covered by the Timbuktoo Initiative will get $1 billion over 10 years. This money is to be used to build an innovation network consisting of 8 pan-African hubs, focusing on key areas (foodtech, greentech, fintech, healthtech).
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Aviation: A program will be launched next November to speed up the launch of the SAATM
The pilot of a program to accelerate the launch of the Single Market for Air Transport in Africa (SAATM) will launch on November 14, 2022. Fourteen countries, including Togo, will take part in this pilot phase.
The news was disclosed after a meeting between Togo’s minister of transport, Affoh Atcha-Dedji, and the Secretary of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC). The meeting took place on September 19, 2022, in Togo, which is the champion country of the SAATM.
The SAATM is a flagship project of the African Union's 2063 Agenda. This project aims to create a single unified air transport market in Africa to advance the liberalization of civil aviation in Africa and give impetus to the continent's economic integration agenda.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), to date, 34 countries have joined the SAATM. This number corresponds to 80% of the existing aviation market in Africa. However, as of 2019, only 10 African countries, including Togo, had taken concrete steps to accelerate the liberalization of the African sky.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: Government helps young entrepreneurs to promote their services and products on public media outlets
In Togo, two ministries just partnered to help some young local entrepreneurs advertise their services and products on State media. These ministries - the ministry for grassroots development and youth, and the ministry of communication - signed an agreement on this framework on September 20, 2022.
The young entrepreneurs concerned by the initiative are those supported by public mechanisms and projects. Such mechanisms and projects include the Support Fund for Youth-led Economic Initiatives (FAIEJ), the Support Fund for the Employment and Insertion of Youth in Key Sectors (PAEIJ-SP), the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CeRES), and the National Coalition for Youth Employment (CNEJ).
According to the two ministries behind the initiative, the entrepreneurs will benefit from "preferential rates and advantageous time slots to communicate on their products and services." In addition, "they will be able to benefit from expertise and advice to implement their written and audiovisual communication supports."
The signatories also said that “young entrepreneurs find it hard to bear the high cost of communication.”
Thus, the new agreement, according to the respective heads of the partnering ministries, will not only help entrepreneurs but also “symbolizes the governmental synergy to implement the public policies lined up with the 2025 Togo governmental roadmap.”
Let’s recall that between 2017 and 2021 a similar agreement helped about 100 young entrepreneurs promote their services and products and public media outlets, notably TVT, Radio Lomé, Radio Kara, Togo presse, and Agence Togolaise de Presse (ATOP).
Esaïe Edoh
Transit: Togo and Benin connect their customs systems
Togolese and Beninese customs are now interconnected, through the SIGMAT module (Interconnected Management System of Goods in Transit). The connection ceremony took place on September 20, at the border post of Sanvee-Condji/Hilla-Condji, the southern border between the two nations.
Already operational in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali, the SIGMAT module allows sharing of digital data between customs systems. Thus, it facilitates and secures the movement of goods through the region's various trade corridors by providing accurate information to customs officers.
Atta-Kakra Essien, Togo’s Customs Commissioner, welcomed the new connection saying it will make trade between Benin and Togo more fluid. He added that it would secure the global logistics chain and revenues while minimizing fraud.
This project is part of a bigger one initiated by the ECOWAS, which aims to boost regional integration through the automation of transit procedures across the WAEMU. It is backed by the ECOWAS, UNCTAD, the European Union, the World Bank, and the German Cooperation, among others.
Togo officially started engaging in the SIGMAT project in March 2019. At the time, the country signed an MoU with Niger and Burkina Faso, to get their respective customs IT systems connected.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo launches climate resilience project for its coastal populations
After being in the pipeline for nearly three years, the climate resilience project for Togolese coastal communities (R4C-Togo) was launched Tuesday, September 20. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) made the announcement the same day. The Global Environment Fund (GEF) backed the project with $8.9 million.
The fruit of an agreement between the Togolese government and FAO, the project aims to make local coastal communities more resilient to climate change, through “an integrated approach focused on adaptation to best practices and innovative technologies in vulnerable ecosystems.” FAO will execute the project and GEF will fund it.
Making coastal populations more resilient to climate change will involve bolstering agriculture, forestry, and fishery, boosting their productivity and sustainability. It will involve increasing and improving the means of living of the populations concerned.
The R4C-Togo "will try to work with municipalities, helping them integrate climate change issues into their planning and budgeting," said Djiwa Oyétoundé, Program Officer at FAO-Togo, during the project’s conception.
Another project that is similar to the R4C-Togo is the WACA-Resip. The latter is backed, however, by the World Bank.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Business France sends a delegation to explore business opportunities in Togo
A delegation of French businessmen is in Togo to explore opportunities the country has to offer. They met with the minister of investment promotion, Kayi Rose Mivedor-Sambiani, last Thursday, September 15.
According to the ministry for investment promotion, the French delegation is part of Business France, a body in charge of the international development of French companies and French investments abroad.
Some of the European businessmen that came to Togo work in the sectors of water (irrigation and sanitation), telecoms, digital, and smart lighting systems.
"During the meeting, the delegation, some of whose members are already carrying out investment projects in the digital, health, and water sectors and should be completed soon, was given a presentation on the business climate and investment opportunities in our country, " the ministry added.
As part of their mission in Togo, the French delegation (led by Jean-César Lammert, Director Business France Côte d’Ivoire & West Africa) also met with executives from financing institutions, such as the BOAD, and other French investors who already operate in Togo.
Last week, a delegation of businessmen from Tunisia (representing the Tunisia-Africa Business Council) was also in Togo for the same purpose as the French delegation.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: Government takes new social measures to deal with the high cost of living
The Togolese President, Faure Gnassingbé, announced last Friday (Sept 16) 10 new social measures to help his people better cope with inflation.
These include a 10% increase in the index value of salaries and retirement pensions for civilian and military civil servants, i.e. an annual amount of 22.5 billion CFA francs, and an additional 5% increase in the retirement pension for all retirees in the civilian and military public sector and the private sector.
The Togolese leader also granted a monthly transport allowance of 10,000 CFA francs on an exceptional basis for each state official, "payable outside the bulletin to cope with the increase in travel costs", corresponding to an annual budgetary cost of 8.8 billion CFA francs as well as a bonus for the balance of the salary advance granted in January 2022 to civil servants and retirees on the remaining 8 months to be repaid, equivalent to 7.1 billion CFA francs.
For the next school year, the new provisions include a special bonus of 3 billion CFA francs (via direct cash transfers) for students’ parents to buy supplies. They will also receive 2.5 billion CFA francs of subsidies to get writing and reading manuals for primary school students.
Other social measures include increasing fertilizer subsidy from 6 billion CFA francs to 7.5 billion CFA francs, same for the subsidy on petroleum products which is set to rise from 30 billion CFA francs to 37.8 billion CFA francs. There will also be an additional allocation of the subsidy on domestic gas, from 7.7 billion CFA francs to 9.3 billion CFA francs.
President Gnassingbé also announced the continued application of fiscal measures favoring the private sector, as part of the health emergency.
These new measures were taken after talks between the government and social actors, in line with the first axis of Togo’s 2025 government roadmap.
Esaïe Edoh
India limits rice exports, Togo braces for impact
India recently decided to limit its rice exports, and this poses new risks for Africa’s food security. On September 9, the Indian government imposed a 20% tariff on exports of white and brown rice and banned the sale of broken rice abroad.
This is bad news for Africa as it was already dealing with the impacts of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the prices of wheat, another major grain for Africans. Togo is, of course, concerned by the situation.
Using data obtained from Trade Map, Togo First found that Togo imports nearly 90% of its rice from India. Last year, alone, Togo bought 201,363 t of rice from the Asian country. This volume makes up 88% of the total rice the West African country bought outside in 2021 - 229,173 t. India is the largest exporter of rice in the world; it contributes 40% of global rice exports.
India’s new decision is particularly troublesome for Togo because the local production of the country only meets 32% of its demand. In the past season, Togo’s rice output even slumped by 3.5%.
Lekpa Antoine Gbebeni, the Togolese minister of agriculture, noted recently that the country had a white rice deficit of over 88,600 t in the 2020/2021 season. White rice is the most-consumed grain in Togo, after maize.
To tackle the country’s white rice deficit and meet demand, which keeps growing, Togolese authorities launched several initiatives such as the National Rice Development Strategy (SNDR 2008-2018), and the National Agricultural, Food Security and Nutritional Investment Program (PNIASAN). Unfortunately, the deficit remained, and white rice imports rather doubled between 2012 and 2021, from 113,585 t to 229,173 t.
Regardless, the government isn’t giving up. It drew a new strategy, the SNDR phase II covering the 2019-2030 period. Under this strategy, the authorities want to set up Planned Agricultural Development Zones (ZAAP in French) and develop irrigated areas including those of Kovié, Djagblé, Bas-Mono, and Koumbéloti.
Besides these, the government said it will take advantage of the restructuring of the Agricultural Financing Incentive Mechanism (MIFA) to better support farmers, financially.
By 2030, Lomé expects local production of paddy rice to reach 817,000 t, which equals about 500,000 t of white rice.
In the meantime, local actors ask for a deep reform of the sector, which is dominated by wholesalers and major importers such as Olam from Singapore, Louis Dreyfus from France, Ets Mawugnon, and Elisee Cotranne from Togo.
"Wholesalers and importers sell very little local rice. The promotion of local consumption has been neglected in favor of Asian rice, which is flooding the Togolese market. We, local producers, need more support from the government to increase the volume of rice we produce. It is more and more of good quality," a local producer told Togo First.
"Why not start limiting imports?" said another agricultural player who recognized, however, that local production is still weak, as is rice processing, which is still not modern enough to challenge Asian rice.
Written by: Fiacre E. Kakpo
Translated from French by Schadrac Akinocho
Togo: Tuber production rose by 11% since 2017
Togo’s tuber output rose by about 11% over the past five years. From 1,950,000 t in 2015, it moved to 2,193,462 t last year. The ministry of agriculture recently disclosed the figures in a report titled “Bilan Campagne 2021-2022 & Perspectives 2022-2023”.
The document specifies that cassava was the most grown tuber in the country over the period reviewed. Togo produced 1,204,249 t of cassava in 2021, compared to 1,027,476 t in 2017 (+17%).
Yam production also grew, from 832,000t in 2017 to 960,431 t in 2021 (+15%). This tuber is mostly grown in the Plateaux and Central regions.
The same trend extended to sweet potatoes with the output rising by 4%, from 9,300 t in 2020 to 9,694 t in 2021. Taro output grew slightly (1.5%) over the same period (it stood at 19,088 t in 2021).
In Togo, tubers mostly satisfy local consumption, and only cassava is processed locally at Atakpamé (since last year).
Esaïe Edoh