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 

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

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 

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.

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

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

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

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

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