Togo First
Togo: Semoa launches e-ticket solution
The Togolese Fintech Semoa launched an event ticketing solution last week via its YEM and WhatsApp Dédé platforms. It was used for the first time last Friday for the Togo-Eswatini match.
The new solution lets fans buy tickets using Tmoney, Visa, and Master Card. “These CashPay services offer autonomy to organizers of cultural events, conferences, training, and others, in the management of admission passes,” Semoa indicated.
"I am convinced that YEM is an essential segment missing in the digitization of cash services and brings added value to users," said Edem Adjamagbo, CEO of SEMOA.
According to the fintech, the new digital solution also helps reduce the environmental impact of printing paper tickets.
Semoa specializes in e-payment services. Among others, it has developed for Ecobank a WhatsApp-based mobile banking app called Xpress Cash. The latter lets users withdraw funds without a banking card, from their T-money or Flooz wallet.
In March 2022, Semoa inked an agreement with Orabank. As part of the deal, the fintech is to deploy WhatsApp Banking for all Oragroup subsidiaries.
Esaïe Edoh
Togo: Ministry of Trade seizes 40 t of corn
Forty tons of corn were seized by the Togolese Ministry of trade last Wednesday night. The seizure aligns with the government’s efforts to fight the high cost of living in Togo and secure stocks of necessities.
"In June, the government issued a regulation for the export of necessities, including corn," said Kodjo Adedze, Minister of Trade, before noting the violation. "Here you have a truck of 40 tons that tried to leave the country fraudulently even if last May 16 we issued a legal basis that regulates the exit of necessities to avoid shortage and mitigate the inflationary effect which we currently experience," the official added.
Authorities were able to proceed to the seizure following an alert via the toll-free number 8585. This number is used to report any irregularity in the commercial field.
Besides measures such as the recent seizure, the Togolese government also capped the prices of certain products, and kept regulating their export, among other measures.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
UMOA-securities: Togo to seek CFA25 billion next Friday
Togo will issue more recovery bonds on June 10, 2022, and it will try to raise CFA25 billion. The bonds will be issued on the regional money market, UMOA-securities.
With a nominal value of CFA10,000 and an interest rate of 5.3%, the bonds will mature over 36 months
So far into the year, Togo’s public treasury raised CFA236 billion from regional investors. That is more than half of its annual target, which is CFA550 billion.
Esaïe Edoh
Between 2020 and 2021, passenger traffic at Lomé’s airport soared by 52%
The international airport of Lomé (AIGE) recorded a 52% year-on-year surge in passenger traffic in 2021. According to the airport’s authorities, from 460,000 in 2020, the figure jumped to 960,000.
This level is closer to that recorded in 2019: 916,000 travelers. In 2020, the traffic collapsed due to Covid-19 and related protection measures taken by the Togolese government.
The rebound in traffic recorded last year is good news for the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC).
"Our goal is to reach 1.5 million passengers by 2025. With the resumption of flights, we have exponential growth," said ANAC’s boss, Gnama Latta.
Togo, let’s recall, wants to be an air hub in West Africa, in line with its government’s 2020-2025 development roadmap. That is why it renovated its international airport in 2016 and has been introducing several reforms in its aviation sector.
Esaïe Edoh
How can African farmers benefit from AfDB’s recently-launched $1.5B agriculture support facility?
On Friday, May 20, 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced a $1.5 billion (about CFAF 920 billion) support plan for the African agricultural sector. The finance project would help African countries cope with the food crisis threatening the continent. The latter is presently deprived of more than 30 million tons of foodstuffs due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Under the initiative which spans two years, over 20 million African smallholders will access certified seeds, quality fertilizers, and innovative technologies, and this would accelerate the production of 38 million tons of additional food. In detail, the plan is expected to produce 11 million tons of wheat, 18 million tons of maize, 6 million tons of rice, and 2.5 million tons of soybeans.
"The African Development Bank will provide fertilizer to smallholder farmers across Africa over the next four cropping seasons, using its leverage with major fertilizer manufacturers, loan guarantees, and other financial instruments," the pan-African institution said.
How can African countries benefit from the facility?
During the AfDB’s Annual Meetings that were recently held in Accra, between May 23 and 27, the Bank’s president, President Akinwumi Adesina (pictured), detailed steps to be taken by countries that want to benefit from the African Emergency Food Production Facility.
"I received a call from [Senegalese] President Macky Sall. He wanted to know what he had to do to benefit from the facility. I told him it was very simple. It's a needs-based facility. What is important is to develop a project and submit it to AfDB. The Bank will then evaluate it. It will only finance farmers in countries that make the request based on a project submitted by governments," explained the president of the development finance institution, based in Abidjan.
However, the banking institution insists that requests for support must be supported by the implementation of reforms aimed at "addressing systemic barriers that prevent modern input markets from functioning effectively," in line with the commitments made by African agriculture and finance ministers to AfDB in early May.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Ethiopian Airlines connects Lomé to Washington
Ethiopian Airlines launched today, June 1, a new connection to Washington via Lome.
The carrier will fly from Addis Ababa to the US capital, via Lomé, thrice a week.
“We are very pleased to launch a new passenger service connecting Lomé with Washington DC. The U.S. is one of our most important markets due to the presence of a large African community and the growing business and tourism ties with Africa,” said Ethiopian Airlines Group CEO Mesfin Tasew in an inaugural statement.
“The new flight further enhances the air connectivity between Africa and the U.S. and helps in fostering the economic, trade, tourism, and diplomatic ties between the two regions,” he added.
Apart from strengthening Lome's position as a sub-regional hub to the US, this new route brings Ethiopian Airlines' frequency to 10 flights to Washington DC, compared to the current 7 weekly flights.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Climate Change: Canada to help Togo and three other West African countries better collect and process climate data
Canada will grant $20 million (about CFA12 billion) to four West African countries–Togo, Ghana, Liberia, and Gambia–to help them build the capacity of their national climate measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems.
The announcement was made last week by the Canadian minister of environment and climate change, Steven Guilbeault, during an official visit to Ghana. On the occasion, Guilbeault met with the Ghanaian ministers of environment and lands, Kwaku Afriyie and Benito Owusu-Bio, respectively.
The financing will help beneficiaries develop strong and effective mitigation policies and actions against climate challenges, by helping them get transparent, accurate, and comparable information on emission sources. It (the financing) will be administered by NovaSphere, a Canadian non-profit organization, which will “help the countries track emission reduction progress as they work towards achieving their goals under the Paris Agreement,” according to a statement of the Canadian government.
“NovaSphere is honoured to be collaborating with the Government of Canada to support implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate governance with partner countries Ghana, Liberia, The Gambia, and Togo”, commented Tom Baumann, CEO of NovaSphere.
The non-profit deploys targeted technical and financial support for climate governance to help build the capacity needed to establish effective and efficient measurement, reporting, and verification.
It will also help Togo and the other countries better secure financing to implement their respective NDCs.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
MSC boss says Bolloré’s terminal at the port of Lomé will remain operationally independent
"The terminal managed by BAL [Bolloré Africa Logistics, editor’s note] will remain operationally independent, with its top management in Lomé, placed under the responsibility of its CEO in Puteaux [Bolloré headquarters, editor’s note], as is currently the case. The two entities will not face but complement each other." The statement was recently disclosed by Diego Aponte, President of MSC since 2014, in an interview.
Bolloré’s Togolese subsidiary is under the spotlight since it was taken over by MSC, following a deal inked last March. It draws attention also because MSC, the world’s leading shipping company, already operates in Lomé through Lomé Container Terminal (LCT), the second terminal of the Port of Lomé.
The issue lies in the fact that several port actors and observers are not fond of granting LCT full monopoly over the handling activities of the port of Lomé; this, despite the company being quite successful and having increased the port’s container traffic fivefold since its arrival. This is a situation that MSC is trying to ease before facing African regulators, who have yet to approve its deal with Bolloré.
“Our goal is not to have a dominant position that could penalize one player or another. There is a port authority whose role is precisely to regulate and ensure that everyone can operate normally in its basins,” Diego Aponte said in an attempt to reassure those concerned about the agreement. “We have therefore planned, both at BAL and MSC, to visit these various authorities in the coming months, to obtain their approval, but also to present ourselves and explain our vision,” he added.
MSC, which considers Lomé as a regional hub, claims it wants to use Togo Terminal’s facilities, alongside LCT’s, to accommodate other shipowners who serve the Togolese capital. The group operates in Togo via its container terminal investment company, Terminal Investment Limited (TIL).
“With transshipment, the volumes handled at the Lomé Container Terminal (LCT) prevent us from serving other shipowners besides MSC. So they resort to BAL’s facilities, and there is no reason for this to change,” said the son of Gianluigi Aponte, founder of MSC.
“We will not influence commercial policies and tariffs, nor the terminal’s management, to ensure that there is a real differentiation between the two port operators,” he insists.
Just like with all its new subsidiaries, “we want to keep managing … by keeping BAL as an independent company of the group,” Aponte stressed. However, in the short term, there will be new branding and a new logo.
“We do not intend to integrate BAL into MSC, but rather to find synergies with our subsidiaries to avoid duplication and overinvestment in certain facilities… We will keep the workforce and management as it is, the latter being accountable only to a new shareholder in the person of Aponte and not Bolloré.”
The explanations are given around two weeks after the Togolese minister of maritime economy told Tribune Afrique that the Togolese government “reserves the right to comment on this deal at the appropriate time”. The official also said talks regarding the MSC-Bolloré were not over, though the groups have reached an agreement.
The Togolese government is working on a new criminal procedure code
Togo wants to modernize its judicial system by adopting a new code of criminal procedure. A draft bill was adopted to this end on May 30, 2022, during the government’s latest Council of Ministers.
The bill, which contains 1047 articles, aims, according to the government, to modernize the Togolese criminal procedure and tackle “new” challenges like terrorism or maritime piracy. It will also speed up criminal procedures, and enable Togo to meet major international standards regarding individual freedom and protection of the dignity of individuals.
“As part of the vast program to modernize the judiciary, elaborating the new code of criminal procedure is one of the responses to the many challenges of the judicial world and it contributes to improving the efficiency of the judicial system in line with the goals of the first axis of the government’s 2020–2025 roadmap,” reads the Council’s statement.
In detail, the report further notes that the new code aims to bolster the rights of victims, of the defense, organize alternatives to prosecution and pre-trial detention, and establish remedies in criminal matters.
According to Akodah Ayewouadan, Minister in charge of communication and government spokesman, this planned reform will allow the effective introduction of alternatives to imprisonment in criminal affairs—such as community service or the electronic bracelet.
“The innovations are numerous, including the possibility for judges to propose alternatives, not only to prosecution but also to detention. Specifically, instead of detaining someone temporarily or permanently, we can consider solutions such as the electronic bracelet, which allows a person not to be locked up, but still be available for justice,” said the government spokesman.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: the National Directorate of Public Procurement Management to soon undergo major reforms
Togo’s National Directorate of Public Procurement Management (DNCCP) is about to undergo restructuring. A draft decree, aimed at bolstering and extending the authority of this department to public-private partnerships (PPPs) procedures, was examined and adopted by the government during the Council of Ministers held last Monday, May 30, 2022.
“This decree, which is part of the recent reforms of the framework of public procurement, aims to adapt the DNCCP to its new missions of control of procedures related to public procurement and public-private partnership contracts,” reads the Council statement. “This reform will allow the DNCCP to process these documents more efficiently and rapidly,” the report adds.
The announcement comes shortly after another reform project aimed at turning the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority into the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (ARCOP), thus extending its authority as well.
The DNCCP is an administrative structure under the Togolese Ministry of Economy and Finance. It is responsible for the a priori control of public procurement procedures and public service delegations.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi