The Sotouboua 2 municipality in Togo has adopted a Municipal Development Plan (PDC). The document, which covers the 2026-2030 period, was validated late last week in Adjengré, the municipal capital, during a workshop involving municipal councillors and local stakeholders.

The implementation of this five-year plan will require a significant resource mobilization effort, with an estimated total cost of 2.26 billion CFA francs. The PDC is structured around four programmes and fourteen projects aimed at sustainably improving the living conditions of the population.

Planned interventions target several priority sectors, including health, education, rural infrastructure, access to drinking water, and electrification. Through these actions, municipal authorities intend to stimulate inclusive economic and social development while strengthening local governance and environmental protection.

With the validation of the document, the municipality now enters the operational phase. The mobilization of financing and the execution of projects should be carried out in a participatory manner with the involvement of all social groups. According to the first deputy mayor of Sotouboua 2, Akata Atchozou, this inclusive approach is essential to guarantee the ownership and success of the plan over the next five years.

Esaïe Edoh

Togo plans to step up support for local development in 2026. Under the 2026 budget, the Support Fund for Local Authorities (FACT) will rise to 12 billion CFA francs, up 20% from 10 billion CFA francs in 2025.

The increase aligns with the decentralization policy pursued in recent years and is intended to strengthen the financial capacity of municipalities and regions. FACT funding is mainly used to finance investment projects, particularly in basic infrastructure, education, health and sanitation.

Over the past five years, a total of 41.8 billion CFA francs has been allocated to local authorities. Authorities have also been urged to improve budget planning and execution.

The higher FACT allocation comes as municipalities develop or update their local development plans, which help define investment priorities and attract additional financing. The fund is expected to act as a catalyst, enabling local governments to launch projects and strengthen their credibility with development partners.

Togo has 117 municipalities, the basic units of local governance and territorial development. They are grouped into 39 prefectures and five regions.

R.E.D

Youth and innovation will be central to the Togo Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (CCI-Togo) 2026 strategy. The institution plans to set up a startup investment fund to support youth-led projects in high-potential sectors.

Digital technology, agribusiness, handicrafts and services are among the fund’s target areas, according to an announcement in the December 2025 issue of Entrepreneurs Mag, the chamber’s quarterly magazine. The initiative aims to help bridge a funding gap faced by many young innovative companies, which often struggle to raise early-stage and growth capital.

CCI-Togo has not disclosed the fund’s size, but says it will provide technical and strategic support in addition to financing. This will include mentoring, help refining business models, governance improvements and market access. The chamber says such support is critical, as many Togolese startups still struggle to strengthen their commercial strategy and internal organization.

By combining funding and advisory support, the initiative aims to professionalize project leaders, improve business viability and reduce failure rates. CCI-Togo President José Syménouh said it would help “build a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem based on innovation, creativity and initiative.”

The move also reflects the chamber’s ambition to strengthen its role as a talent incubator and growth catalyst, at a time when access to finance remains a major hurdle for young companies in Togo.

Esaïe Edoh

Togo started reducing its debt on the WAEMU regional market in 2025. Consolidated data from UMOA-Titres show that Togo’s outstanding debt to regional investors fell 5.6% over the year to 1,810.5 billion CFA francs.

That made Togo one of the few WAEMU members to record a decline in its debt stock on the public securities market, contrasting with most other countries where outstanding amounts continued to rise in 2025.

Across the bloc, total outstanding debt edged down 3.7%, but the regional figure hid wide differences between countries. Ivory Coast posted a sharper drop of 15.4%, while Niger (+7.2%), Mali (+2.2%) and Senegal (+2%) increased their borrowing from regional investors.

The Togolese government raised 411 billion CFA francs in 2025, down from 2024 and well below earlier years. The drop did not signal a pullback from the market, but rather a shift in funding strategy.

Togo has gradually reduced its reliance on standard UMOA-Titres auctions in favor of longer-dated funding, using the BRVM segment more, including syndicated bond issues. The aim is to smooth maturities and ease refinancing pressure, as several WAEMU states faced heavy repayments in 2025 after years of tight bank liquidity.

Meanwhile, borrowing across the regional market surged in 2025. WAEMU states raised nearly 11.86 trillion CFA francs, up 45.9% year on year. Bond issuance jumped 89.5%, reflecting efforts to lengthen maturities and smooth repayment schedules.

Fiacre E. Kakpo

Togo expects to raise 10.38 billion CFA francs in mining royalties in 2026, according to revenue forecasts for the 2026-2028 period.

This amount is projected to increase to 12.48 billion CFA francs in 2027 and reach 13.62 billion CFA francs in 2028. Over the three-year period, revenue from mining royalties is forecast to rise by nearly 31%, based on the projections. This suggests a gradual increase in the mining sector’s contribution to public finances over the next three years.

However, these royalties would still be below recent collections, and mining has historically generated modest revenue, making only a limited contribution to the state budget. Available data show total mining revenue amounted to about 19.84 billion CFA francs in 2021.

Despite the relative growth expected from 2026 to 2028, mining royalties remain very small compared with total expected budget revenue, which is projected to exceed 1,600 billion CFA francs in 2026.

Togo’s mining sector is dominated by phosphate. Production exceeded 1.5 million tonnes in 2022, and the mineral has been mined for decades as the country’s main mineral export. Togo also has limestone and clinker deposits used in the cement industry, as well as gold and diamond resources that are not yet produced commercially.

Alongside these resources, authorities are also banking on new projects. These include the Nayega manganese mine in the northern part of the country. With potential output of several hundred thousand tonnes per year at full capacity, the mine is expected to be one of the main growth drivers for the Togolese mining sector.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Lome hosted a high-level meeting on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, aimed at strengthening and streamlining the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes region. The meeting was held as part of the AU-backed mediation led by Togo.

President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, the African Union’s mediator, chaired the session. It brought together African facilitators Olusegun Obasanjo, Uhuru Kenyatta, Mokgweetsi Masisi, Catherine Samba-Panza and Sahle-Work Zewde. Representatives from the DRC, Rwanda, Angola, Burundi, Uganda, the United States, Qatar and France also attended, alongside African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, regional organizations and other international partners.

The talks focused on coordinating African and international peace initiatives to avoid fragmented mediation efforts and keep the Togo-led process at the core of negotiations.

Participants also approved changes to the mediation framework, including the creation of an independent joint secretariat to provide technical support to the panel of facilitators.

Meanwhile, Washington reaffirmed its support for African-led mediation under Gnassingbe. Keith R. Gilges, director of the Office of Central African Affairs at the U.S. State Department, attended the meeting and praised Togo’s role and coordination with the U.S. and Qatari tracks. The United States reiterated its support for agreements reached in 2025 between the DRC and Rwanda.

Togo’s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts completed a digitisation project late last week after a month of technical work.

The digital solutions, along with plans to operationalise and sustain the paperless process, were presented on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, by the Togo Digital Agency. The presentation was made to Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Service Efficiency, and Isaak Tchiakpé, Minister of Tourism.

The project included the establishment of a strategic analysis room, described as a “smart room.” The facility is equipped with screens and dashboards designed to monitor, in real time, the performance of the ministry’s digitised projects and services. Administrative procedures for the ministry and its affiliated entities are now available on the national public services platform.

The initiative was led by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Service Efficiency and also took into account the tourism ministry’s internal needs. Several digital tools were deployed to digitise internal administrative procedures, including electronic systems for managing correspondence and documents.

Other ministries are expected to follow the tourism ministry. Authorities say the goal is to roll out the digitisation of administrative services across all ministries in the country.

Esaïe Edoh

Authorities in southern Togo have cleared land and paid compensation to allow construction of three groynes on a two-kilometre stretch of coastline, as contractors race to meet a Nov. 15, 2026 deadline under the West Africa Coastal Areas Resilience Investment Project (WACA ResIP).

The clearance of right-of-way between Nimania and Alogavi, along with about 350 million CFA francs ($575,000) in compensation payments to affected residents, has cleared the way for work in Adjissem, which is now included in coastal protection works on the Bodjome-Agbodrafo-Goumoukope section.

The three groynes planned for this erosion-prone part of the Lacs coastline account for nearly 14% of the 22 structures in the programme. Groynes are structures built perpendicular to the shore to reduce erosion by trapping sand carried by currents.

The development comes as Boskalis International has 10 months to complete 14 remaining structures and meet the contractual deadline. The Adjissem segment is considered particularly exposed to wave and current action.

“In Adjissem, the shoreline has moved more than 40 metres inland over the past two years, compared with less than 20 metres projected in the study,” a programme technical manager said.

Backing from fishing communities 

Project officials said backing from the fishing community, following completion of the compensation process, removed a key social hurdle that had weighed on the schedule. Project figures show 99% of residents support completion of the works in the area.

The project will need to speed up in the coming months. With physical progress at 28% while 39% of the scheduled time has already passed, Boskalis must step up construction to deliver the remaining groynes before mid-November 2026. The Dutch firm is already familiar with the Togolese coast, having carried out previous major coastal protection works.

As of Jan. 9, 2026, five groynes had been completed and signed off, and three more were under construction, including one at the midpoint, according to information shared by the programme.

Work has now started on eight of the 22 groynes planned, marking steady progress since construction began on Oct. 29, 2025.

“We keep full records of every handover, from the quarry to completion of these groynes,” said Albert Limasier, deputy head of mission for the INROS-Lackner control mission.

Deadline pressure

Meeting the Nov. 15, 2026 deadline will be a key test of Togo’s ability to protect its coastline over the long term from increasing risks of erosion and flooding, while safeguarding the economic activities of coastal communities.

Bringing Adjissem into active construction is seen as a positive signal. The segment initially required a revision of the Resettlement Action Plan due to rapid shoreline movement and the density of fishing activity.

In total, 33 billion CFA francs have been mobilised for the 18-month project, which aims to strengthen protection of the Togolese coastline. Beyond the 22 groynes, the programme also includes backfilling lagoon channels and planting coconut trees across 10 hectares in Aneho.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi