The International Development Association, the World Bank’s financing arm, set aside $60 million for Togo to implement one of its projects: the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion project (COSO). This was recently disclosed by the Togolese government.

Togo is not the only country in the region that is covered by the project. It extends to Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana. 

Overall, the World Bank disbursed $450 million for the project that should help beneficiaries better tackle security issues in regions close to the Sahel, through social initiatives. This is as violent extremism keeps mounting, fostered by climate change and poverty which has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.  

In Togo, the COSO is steered by the National Agency for Grassroots  Development. The latter launched this week a tender to recruit two regional environmental protection assistants and two regional social protection assistants, towards the project's implementation in the Savanes region (Northern Togo).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Asky and Ethiopian Airlines want to open an aviation school in Lomé. The news was reported by several media, including Ecofin Agency, which quoted Ethiopian Airlines’s manager, Mesay Shiferaw.

The school will train pilots, aircraft maintenance technicians, and flight attendants who are much sought after in Africa.

According to the source,  talks are already underway between the carriers. Besides this, little is known about the project. But it could be a regional (West Africa) academy, and its model could be the same as Ethiopian Airlines’ current academy (which can receive up to 4,000 students per year). 

If the talks regarding the academy are conclusive, Lomé’s position as an air hub in Africa and West Africa will be reinforced.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The Public Procurement Regulator of Togo (ARMP) is introducing public agents in charge of procurement to standards governing these contracts. It started a 10-day workshop to this end last Tuesday, July 5. 

In detail, the workers will learn quality standards that are applicable in Togo. According to the ARMP, the standards cover the planning, provision, and execution of procurement.

The initiative comes as Togo works on relying more on public-private partnerships and expanding the regulatory scope of public procurement. Recently, the ARMP launched an awareness campaign on its code of ethics and conduct for public procurements.

Togo inaugurated last Tuesday a risk-assessment cell in Lomé. 

The cell will collect data on terrorist threats that other countries face. Then, resident experts will analyze this information towards taking adequate steps to eliminate or mitigate a given threat. "These data allow us to know the nature of the threats, which will help experts in Togo to propose better responses," said Akseli Saviranta, Head of the Africa-Frontex Intelligence Community (AFIC) project.

The new cell will help Togo fight organized crime, cross-border smuggling, and terrorism, by boosting police and judicial cooperation. 

This is in a context where international cooperation in fighting terrorism has become essential, according to the Togolese security minister, Yark Damehane. “To tackle the challenges that our countries face in fighting cross-border crimes, we need strong cooperation and mutual support which will help us find together efficient and effective responses,” he said. 

The risk analysis cell of Lomé is a project of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The cell, which the European Union financed with CFA2.5 billion, is the seventh in the sub-region.

Esaïe Edoh

IB Bank Togo (former BTCI) and Togo’s National Council of Employers (CNP-Togo) inked last Friday a partnership agreement that will help local SMEs and SMIs readily secure financing. The agreement was signed by the bank’s MD, Nabil Tahari, and Laurent Tamegno, who heads the CNP.

“The goal is to review the offer provided to these types of clients,” said Tahari before adding that “IB Bank Togo will do everything to help SMEs materialize their projects.”

According to the two partners, SMEs and SMIs make up 90% of the country’s economic fabric, and developing them is one of the government’s top priorities. However, they stressed that these businesses are the most vulnerable to global crises. That is why IB Bank Togo, which belongs to Burkinabe mogul Mahamadou Bonkoungou, proposes accessible offers tailored to Togolese businesses, especially in agribusiness, transport, and infrastructure sectors. 

Before its purchase by Bonkoungou, the BTCI was Togo’s last fully public bank. Now, the State owns only 10% of the bank. The remaining 90% are held by IB Holding.

Esaïe Edoh

The World Food Program, WFP, greenlit Togo’s 2022-2026 food security strategy last month in Roma. The $17 million plan aims to help around 260,000 people who face food insecurity in the West African country. Also, it aligns with the ambitions falling under the government’s 2020-2025 roadmap. 

Concretely, the WFP will provide food and cash to those facing multi-dimensional crises in Togo. This support should allow the beneficiaries to prepare ahead of, and appropriately tackle emergencies.   

Besides, a pilot school feeding program will be implemented as part of the five-year strategy backed by WFP. This initiative will be based on local production and help smallholder farmers reduce their post-harvest losses. In effect, supply contracts will be established between these producers and school canteens, in line with the government's priorities relative to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2030).

The WFP’s support complements the World Bank’s $716 million financing for the Regional Food Systems Resilience Program in West Africa (PRSA), which covers Togo and six other countries in West and Central Africa.

Esaïe Edoh

The Togolese government will indemnify the families of soldiers killed during military operations carried out inside the country. The grief-stricken will get CFA10 million.

Both agreeing on the amount, the minister of economy, Sani Yaya, and the minister of security, General Yark Damehane, disclosed it in a joint decree. 

According to the decree, the sum, “chargeable to the State budget,” will be shared between the deceased’s beneficiaries, in line with succession-related provisions in force in Togo.

The new measure follows the killing of eight Togolese soldiers in a terrorist attack that happened in Kpekpakandi, located in the Kpendjal prefecture. 

Esaïe Edoh

At the last quarterly meeting of the National Credit Council (CNC) held on July 1, Sani Yaya, the Togolese minister of economy, brought back agricultural financing to the table.

"At our previous meeting, I suggested the organization of a national workshop to reflect on the financing of the agricultural and housing sectors. But, to be more pragmatic and efficient, I asked instead to put the issue of agricultural financing on the agenda of this session. We will examine the issue of housing finance at the next meeting of the Council," he said at the meeting, which brought together the banking and finance actors of Togo.

The goal was especially to identify "the constraints to which the actors of the agricultural value chain are exposed; the requirements of banks and decentralized financial systems to further increase the financing of agriculture.” The idea was also to see how to strengthen and accelerate the effectiveness of the Risk-Sharing Agricultural Finance Incentive Facility (RFAIFF), and to identify "a set of measures to address financing issues in the agricultural sector."

These reflections involved stakeholders from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development; the Regional Office of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the MIFA; and the Togolese Coordination of Farmers' Organizations and Agricultural Producers (CTOP).

Ultimately, the government and its partners will have to “identify a set of measures to further increase funding for the agricultural sector.”

In Togo, the agricultural sector, although representing about 40% of the national GDP, benefits from only 0.2% of total bank financing.

Due to the war in Ukraine, Togo scaled down its growth forecasts for the year. From 6.1% the figure was reduced to 5.9% by the ministry of finance.  

Sani Yaya, who heads this ministry, disclosed the information last Friday, at the National Credit Council of Togo (CNC), a meeting that gathered the country's bank and finance actors. 

"As you know, since the end of February, the world has been shaken by geopolitical tensions induced by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This has disrupted post-Covid-19 recovery plans," Yaya said. "This conflict is directly affecting economies through trade and indirectly through its impact on rising energy prices and imported food products," he added.

While new projections, at the national level, confirm an improvement in economic activity, they highlight a slight decrease of 20 base points (0.2%) which explains the forecast revision. 

The government is more optimistic than the African Development Bank (AfDB) which expects Togo to record a growth of 5.8% in 2022. However, both parties agree on the decrease of about 20 base points (AfDB initially issued a forecast of 6.2%).

Some good news

Not everything is bad. Indeed, Sani Yaya revealed last Friday that bank lending has risen sharply since the beginning of the year. It grew by 39% YoY to CFA270 billion in Q1 2022.

Over the same period, decentralized finance systems loaned CFA50 billion to economic operators, up by 37% compared to Q1 2021.

Another good news is the sustained improvement of lending by banks and microfinance institutions in the first quarter of this year. The gross deterioration rate of the credit portfolio of banks (the ratio between gross outstanding loans and total loans), has decreased by 5 percentage points, from 16% in Q1 2021 to 11% in Q1 2022. A positive trend that Togo First had already noted.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi