Togo First
Gozem partners with IFC to finance 6,000 taxi-bike riders
Gozem announced yesterday, June 13, that it has sealed a $10 million (CFA6 billion) financing deal with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Uber-like startup said it would use the funds to help 6,000 taxi-bike riders, in Benin and Togo, get new vehicles and increase their earnings.
According to Gozem’s cofounder, Grégory Costamagna, IFC’s financing will help overcome financing issues that the firm’s champions face. "To finance the replacement of their vehicles, taxi-bike riders in West and Central Africa need $3 billion of loans yearly. We are therefore delighted that the IFC trusts Gozem to be at the forefront of providing affordable financing to these underserved communities," he said.
Part of the new funds will also enable Gozem to get electric bikes which, in the medium-long term, could replace gasoline-powered bikes. IFC and Gozem, in this framework, “are working together to test electric bikes in the operating conditions of taxi-bikes,” in the next 12 months.
The new partners added that large-scale adoption of hybrid bikes would “not only help cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly but also allow riders to save money, by cutting on energy and maintenance fees.”
Gozem, let’s recall, has helped over 2,000 of its champions get vehicles in 14 months, through its V+ program.
In 2021, the startup raised CFA3 billion from AAIC, Thunes (TransferTo), Momentum Ventures (SMRT), Innoport Ventures (Schulte Group), CMC Ventures (National Express), and Liil Ventures (Mobility ADO) to expand across French-speaking Africa.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo seeks a consultant to draw a new tax revenue forecasting model
As part of its Economic Governance Support Project (PAGE), Togo will draw a tax revenue forecasting model and assess the impact of tax measures on its economy. To this end, Togolese authorities recently launched a bid to recruit a consultant to perform this task.
The bid, which Togo Presse (a local newspaper) published, states that consultants have until 22 June 2022 to submit their applications. Once selected, the winning bidder will have five months to complete the task, starting in September 2022.
Launched in 2018, the PAGE mainly aims to improve public investment management and domestic revenue mobilization, as well as strengthen accountability and monitoring mechanisms for service delivery in key sectors.
The project, which is set to end in 2023, was financially backed by the World Bank and European Union. They pumped $20 million into the PAGE.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo’s ministry of agriculture prepares for a bad harvest this year
As everything points to a bad harvest for the ongoing farming season, the Togolese Ministry of agriculture met with actors in the sector last Saturday, June 11. They explored steps to take to improve yields.
Some of the signs showing that Togo’s agricultural output will be low this year include the effects of climate change, such as weather variation and phenomena–flooding and drought–which weaken the production system; Covid-19 which impairs the movement of farming input, terrorist attacks which caused farmers to flee arable lands. There is also the price of fertilizer which shot up due to the war in Ukraine.
During the meeting, the government took stock of the suggestions of agricultural actors to improve output and protect Togo from food insecurity.
It should be emphasized that Lomé has already taken some measures to help farmers cope with the difficult situation. Among others, it has supplied them with 76,000 tons of fertilizers and subsidized some of the input they need.
Esaïe Edoh
UMOA-titres: Togo records another successful bond issue
Togo secured CFA25 billion on the regional money market last Friday, through a recovery bond issue. Each bond has a nominal value of CFA10,000, a fixed interest rate of 5.3%, and will mature over 36 months.
According to the Umoa-titres agency, regional investors mobilized 77 billion CFA, or 308.86% of the amount initially sought.
So far into 2022, Togo has secured CFA288 billion on the UMOA-titres market, out of an annual target of CFA550 billion.
Esaïe Edoh
Climate Change: Togo launches a project to set up 10 smart cities
In a bid to tackle climate issues, Togo plans to set up Smart Cities. The government launched a project to this end on June 9, 2022.
In detail, a dozen municipalities will be supported in drawing a strategy for setting up these smart cities, and for preparing an action plan to mitigate and adapt to climate change, in line with municipal development plans (PDC).
The project, which was launched by the minister of the environment, Katari Foli-Bazi, is backed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Climate Technology Centre & Networks, which is the operational arm of the Technology Mechanism of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).
"We have all we need to succeed," the minister told the mayors and representatives of the local authorities of the 10 municipalities. "The challenge is clear. We must reinvent the cities. The effectiveness of decentralization and the prospects for local development are an opportunity to act against poverty and vulnerability of the population," said Aliou Dia, resident representative of the UN agency in charge of development, at the launch of the meeting.
The project will ultimately enable benefiting municipalities to rely on new technologies and manage space more rationally to meet challenges associated with the growing urban population, relative to land, access to water, energy, waste management, access to school infrastructure, transportation, health services, productivity/conservation or agricultural processing.
In March 2021, the government, the UNDP, and the CTCN signed an agreement regarding this same project.
WAEMU: Inflation went further up last April
WAEMU countries have been dealing with a surge in inflation in recent months and according to recent figures released by the Union’s Central Bank, BCEAO, things are not getting any better. In a report issued on May 31, the institution wrote that the inflation rate in the region rose to 6.8% in April 2022, from 6.6% and 6.1% in March and February, respectively.
Food, Accommodation, and Transport
The increase was mainly driven by a jump in prices of food products, accommodation, and transport costs. The overall contribution of these elements to inflation flew from 0.4 and 0.2 percentage points in March 2022 to 0.5 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively. This was after the rise in fuel prices, across the whole WAEMU area.
Togo, which still had one of the lowest costs last quarter in nominal terms, experienced the largest increase; +17.8% in March, according to the Central Bank (over the period, Benin and Mali, which already had higher prices in nominal terms, experienced an increase of 10.1% and 14.9%, respectively).
Meanwhile, crude price was up by 62.7% YoY.
Food
Similarly, the BCEAO notes that food prices in the WAEMU went up 12.1% in April, and 12.4% in March this year. In this segment, the increase was lowest in Togo, compared to its neighbors Burkina Faso (+43.4%), Mali (+20.4%), and Niger (+11.8%).
The report attributes the spike to "the surge in global prices of food imported by the Union, in connection with the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, since the two countries provide about 30% of the global supply of wheat."
Accommodation
The higher accommodation costs for their part were also attributed to an increase in prices of solid and liquid fuels (+1.3% and +16.2%). These include diesel, primarily, but also wood and charcoal to a lesser extent.
The increase in the price of cooking gas was particularly significant in Benin (+26.8%), Mali (+17.5%), and Togo (+16.4%), amid soaring global prices.
As for firewood, Togo is the most impacted, with its cost flaring up 20.0%. After Togo come Niger (+10.5%) and Senegal (+4.1%). This situation is attributed to the higher cost of transporting wood to major urban centers.
Finally, the underlying inflation rate (calculated by excluding the most volatile prices) came out at 5.0% in April 2022, up from 4.5% in March 2022 across the whole WAEMU.
“Pressure on food prices explains 62.3% of the increase in underlying inflation," the BCEAO said, highlighting that the rise in the prices of certain foodstuffs concerns oils (+17.1%), dried vegetables (+18.1%), flour (+17.9%) and meat (+8.6%).
Due to this economic situation, marked by a high cost of living, WAEMU governments, Togo’s especially, have been taking steps to curb pressure on consumers.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: Elisabeth Pali-Tchalla calls for greater investment in the shea sector to empower women
Organized by the Global Shea Alliance, the Shea Conference 2022 took place in Lomé on June 6-8, 2022. The theme picked for this year was “Growing the future: strengthening resilience and restoration.”
During the event, Elisabeth Pali-Tchalla, who oversees the shea industry in Togo, highlighted the importance of supporting the sector to empower women in the country.
“Looking at the field results, I can logically say that investing in shea butter helps empower women economically, especially in rural areas, and enables them to get out of poverty,” Pali-Tchalla said.
"I am glad that Togo and its development partners understand this approach so well. The holding of this shea conference in our country, for the first time, as we recover from Covid, gives us hope and helps us to revive the sector after the turmoil caused by the pandemic,” she added.
The 3-day meeting was a hybrid event with in-person and virtual attendance. It was opened by the US ambassador to Togo, Elisabeth Fitzsimmons, whose country backed the event.
Local and foreign actors who attended the conference discussed the shea sector’s sustainability, related practices, and food quality standards, as well as cosmetics.
Strengthening resilience
The main topics covered included the state of the shea industry–a sector that employs many women, and how to introduce new demand trends, tap opportunities, and overcome trade barriers.
The conference aimed to strengthen the sector, by consolidating and financing existing strategies.
“We have set up a shea tree restoration fund, and with this fund, we aim to plant 10 million trees over the next 10 years. It’s been in existence for a long time, but now we want to give it a boost,” said the President of the Global Shea Alliance, Simbala Syll.
Elisabeth-Pali-Tchalla is, in addition to the Chairman of the Inclusive Federation of Togo’s Shea Industry, also the CEO of Société Togolaise du Karité (Togolese Company of Shea).
Togo is the seventh-largest producer of shea worldwide.
Togo and Israel want to improve their cooperation, at the economic level especially
After more than 60 years of diplomatic relations, Togo and Israel have decided to actualize their cooperation. This is one of the major outcomes of the recent visit of the Togolese Minister of foreign affairs, Robert Dussey, to the Hebrew State.
The actualization aims to “better match cooperation to the current context and to the strategic options of the two States,” especially “at the economic level.” Thus, new agreements should be signed by both parties.
Among others, the two partners plan a joint economic forum to bolster their economic ties. The event, whose outlines are yet to be defined, will enable industrial companies from Israel to join the Industrial Platform of Adétikopé (PIA), sources close to the matter said.
Togo, it should be noted, is also working on its relationship with Morocco, notably on a no-visa agreement deal and an economic forum as well.
ICANN to help Togo improve its expertise in domain names
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will provide Togo and nine other African countries hands-on training to help their country code top-level (ccTLD) registries compete in the domain industry.
Besides Togo, the other nine registries are from Niger, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros, Madagascar, Angola, Liberia, Zimbabwe, and Gambia. As part of the pilot phase of the project, the ccTLDs will “leverage the expertise of ICANN and the partner organizations that have a common goal, but cannot achieve it alone,” reads a statement issued on June 7, 2022.
“The 10 ccTLD registries will receive specialized training led by industry experts, through a combination of online courses, hands-on workshops, and webinars,” ICANN added in the statement.
The registries are in charge of updating the main database of domain names needed to browse online. ICANN’s training will cover topics ranging from “best practices in domain name system security and registry governance, to business plan writing and marketing, to Internationalized Domain Names and Universal Acceptance.”
For this project, the ICANN and its partners –the International Telecommunication Union-Development Sector (ITU-D), Africa Top Level Domains Organization (AfTLD), Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC), and Association française pour le nommage Internet en coopération (AFNIC)- issued a pledge to the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition.
One of the ICANN's missions is to ensure a secure, stable and unified global Internet. Founded in 1998, the organization coordinates the unique identifiers that allow computers to recognize each other worldwide.
Togolose citizens will soon be able to visit Morocco without a visa
Soon, Togolese citizens will be able to travel to Morocco without a visa. This was revealed by the country’s minister of foreign affairs, Robert Dussey, during a meeting with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, on the sidelines of the first Ministerial Meeting of the Atlantic African States on June 7, 2022. A deal should be signed to this end soon.
"Togolese holding an ordinary passport will be able to travel to Morocco without a visa as soon as the agreement is signed in a few weeks," Dussey declared.
"The upcoming signing of a visa waiver agreement, in favor of Togolese holders of ordinary passports, reflects the quality of human relations between the two countries," said Minister Bourita.
Morocco, it should be recalled, has been trying to expand its footprint in West Africa, across several investment sectors like banking and insurance for some years now.