Togo First
IFAD finances agricultural productivity project focused on rice and cassava in Togo
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Togo launched the "Agricultural Transformation in the Nigerian Federal States and Togolese regions towards Achieving Zero Hunger" project in Lomé last week on Thursday, October 12.
The project carried out in partnership with "AfricaRice and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)", runs for three years and aims to improve agricultural productivity in Togo, and Nigeria.
The project is backed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) with a $2 million package. In Togo, it focuses on the rice and cassava value chains and covers four out of the country’s five regions: Savanes, Kara, Plateaux, and Maritime. Ultimately, the project will train 9,000 agents across the two value chains concerned–4,500 per value chain. This will boost agricultural production, strengthen agricultural capacities, and boost productivity, thus helping fight malnutrition and ensure food security throughout the country.
The project began with a strategic review, identifying challenges and proposing solutions to completely eradicate hunger in Togo by 2030. The launch was marked by the screening of a documentary on the strategies put in place by Nigeria as part of "Hunger Zero."
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Lack of awareness is the main threat to cybersecurity in Togo, ANCy director says
One of the main threats to cybersecurity in Togo is the lack of awareness regarding the topic. That is according to the head of the country’s national agency for cybersecurity (ANCy), Cdt. Gbota Gwaliba. The official recently spoke to the media on the sidelines of the launch of the ECOWAS sub-regional hackathon on cybersecurity.
Main challenges
“The first vulnerability is that the topic of cybersecurity is very new. A lot of companies and administrations don't take these cybersecurity issues into account, often claiming they don't have the budgets,” Gwaliba said, before adding: "Or, they think it's a phenomenon that's experienced much more in Europe or in developed countries."
To tackle this shortcoming, the agency focuses on communication and sensitization. A few weeks ago, it launched an awareness campaign.
"The other issue is that the whole ecosystem, especially the law enforcement part, is not yet sufficiently structured to be able to apprehend cybercriminals because they are very stealthy, they hide (...) So we're asking for everyone's collaboration, to help the police and gendarmerie, as well as those involved in the justice system, to be able to help us get our hands on these cybercriminals who are rampant in our countries."
At the moment, the ANCy is pushing big businesses and administrations to boost their level of maturity, relative to cybercrime, in line with the government’s "decree on essential service operators, essential infrastructures and related obligations”. The agency said it is also working on several technologies, "platforms that will help fight malicious sites, platforms that will help better protect small and medium-sized businesses, as well as startups”.
A five-year cybersecurity strategy in the pipeline
Soon, the ANCy plans to draw a five-year plan for cybersecurity, according to its managing director, Cdt. Gwaliba.
"There are a huge number of projects that we're in the process of implementing. Very soon, the 2023-2027 cybersecurity strategy will be adopted with lots of activities over the next five years."
The ANCy was set up, in 2019, to better protect Togo’s cyberspace and fight cybercrime. Placed under the supervision of the ministry in charge of the digital economy, on the one hand, and the ministry in charge of security, on the other, its operational arm includes Cyber Defense Africa, a joint venture co-financed by the Togolese state and the Polish company Asseco.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: Lomé Hosts WTO Regional Trade Policy Course
Togo is hosting the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Regional Trade Policy Course. The course was launched on October 16 in Lomé, the capital, by Kayi Mivedor, Togolese Minister of Trade. It will last eight weeks.
Throughout the program, officials from ministries of trade of French-speaking African countries will exchange views on the WTO’s fundamental principles. It will provide participants with technical support for the multilateral trade system, with a focus on multilateral trade agreements, services, market access conditions, and dispute settlement.
Primarily, this course will focus on the regional trade policy context, in relation to WTO agreements, and will enlighten participants on how the multilateral trading system can be strengthened, reformed, and modernized.
According to the Togolese minister of trade, Kayi Mivedor, the course will help boost Africa’s contribution to global trade; to which the continent currently contributes only about 2%.
"This is why the WTO's technical assistance and capacity-building programs on the multinational trading system are proving important for Africa," said Mivedor. She also underscored that the proper functioning of a multilateral trading system relies on knowledge and understanding of the opportunities offered by rules and regulations.
Mivedor’s peer from the Ministry of higher education, Ihou Watéba, added, for his part, that the WTO’s courses are an opportunity to acquire the skills and tools needed to venture into highly competitive markets.
Before Togo, the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Regional Trade Policy Course was hosted in Benin, Tunisia and Côte d'Ivoire,
Esaïe Edoh
World Investment Forum: President Gnassingbe explores investment partnerships with WAIPA
At the 8th World Investment Forum held in Abu Dhabi, Faure Gnassingbé, President of Togo, met with Dushyant Thakor, Deputy Executive Director of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA).
According to the Togolese Presidency, this was an opportunity to explore partnership opportunities between Togo and WAIPA, toward greater investment in the country.
At the end of the meeting, Dushyant Thakor said he was convinced there were opportunities in Togo, and he reiterated the WAIPA’s commitment to supporting the policy of structural transformation of the Togolese economy.
"We shared with the President of the Republic, some examples from different parts of the world. This is, again, a commitment that is just beginning and we will work over the coming months to make Togo a wonderful place to do business and with more investment," he said.
WAIPA is an international organization created in 1995 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), bringing together investment promotion agencies.
President Gnassingbé also received Ziad Alexandre Hayek, President of the World Association of Public-Private Partnership Units (WAPPP), and they talked about mobilizing the private sector to implement the social infrastructure projects of the Togo 2025 government roadmap.
President Gnassingbe supports strategic State dynamic at the World Investment Leaders Summit
How can the challenges of sustainable development be tackled to make people more resilient? Faure Gnassingbé, the President of Togo, shared his take on this issue on October 16, 2023, at the ongoing World Investment Leaders Summit in Abu Dhabi.
The Togolese leader stressed that for national economies to develop, the dynamic of the strategic State must be supported. This, he believes, would spur investments, via public-private partnerships, that meet rising challenges.
"The heart of my talk today is about the medium-term role of the State, which I'll call a strategist. It is the in-depth work on the role of the State which, by 2030, will enable us to fully realize our investment ambitions and through public-private partnerships," Faure Gnassingbé said in his speech.
His vision is based on his vision for Togo, which involves opening up the country to investors from all horizons, to finance key projects of the government's roadmap (Togo 2025).
Gnassingbé maintains that "this vision has enabled the advent of a fruitful partnership with the private sector for the development of an industrial platform (the PIA, editor's note) in the northern suburbs of Lomé, the capital."
Opening up the country to public-private partnerships has also helped complete top-priority projects in the energy sector, such as solar power plants and many other large-scale projects.
Convinced of the positive impacts of "a strategic State" and Togo's convincing results, Faure Gnassingbé urged technical and financial partners "to adhere to this new dynamic and support the budgetary capacities of African countries so that they can fully play their roles as strategic States."
Esaïe Edoh
World Bank commitments to Togo increased five-fold between 2018 and now
So far into this year, the World Bank has committed $1,134.63 million in Togo, up about 381% compared to $238 million in 2018. This was disclosed by Sandra Johnson, Minister, Secretary General of the Presidency (photo) in charge of the country’s Business Climate Cell. The official spoke on the sidelines of a meeting last week with Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Vice-President for West and Central Africa. The meeting was held in Marrakech, Morocco, as part of the 2023 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the IMF.
The leap in financial commitment was yielded by the significant improvement in Togo's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) score. From 3 in 2016, this figure rose to 3.7 in 2022, which is the biggest increase on the index in Africa.
The CPIA is a key indicator of the quality of a country's policies and institutions. This score’s improvement has led to a significant increase in World Bank allocations, said Sandra Johnson. Togo is also in first place in terms of disbursement rate within the Bank group, she added.
Johnson attributes the increase in allocations to a battery of structural and institutional reforms implemented since 2018. These reforms, in her opinion, have not only improved governance indicators but also created a favorable environment for investment and sustainable development.
Now, the Togolese government is committed to maintaining the upward momentum, thus ensuring the quality and effectiveness of future projects, by setting stricter criteria. Simply put, Togo wants to capitalize on its achievements to set its development on a sustainable and inclusive trajectory, stressed Sandra Johnson: "We have agreed not only to redouble our efforts in our current actions but also to put in place more rigorous criteria to guarantee the quality of our projects.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
Togo: Social nets and basic services project covers 15,000 homes in the Plateaux region
In Togo’s Plateaux region, around 15,000 homes across 157 villages have benefited from the Social Nets and Basic Services project (Filets Sociaux et Service de Base or FSB) so far. This was revealed on October 11, by Katanga Mazalo, Managing Director of the ANADEB, the project's operational arm. According to the Togolese press agency, ATOP, Mazalo disclosed the figure during an assessment visit conducted in Edouhoué, Asrama district, by a joint delegation of the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD), which co-finance the project alongside the government.
Quoting the official, the ATOP reported that as part of the project, no fewer than 125,000 households, across the country, are given individual cash transfers of CFA15,000 every quarter, over 18 months. The project has also enabled the construction of 20 school buildings, 10 photovoltaic boreholes, the rehabilitation of 3 peripheral healthcare units, the upgrading of 5 rural tracks, and the creation of 3 community centers.
During the recent visit, the people of Edouhoé talked with the World Bank-AFD delegation about steps for selecting beneficiary households, as well as details of the construction process for the infrastructure financed by the project.
While the Mayor of Commune Haho 2, Ayidoté Sossou, emphasized the local population's mastery of contract award procedures and expressed his gratitude to the partners for their trust, Julian Koschorke, head of the World Bank delegation, praised the participatory development process implemented in Edouhoé and reaffirmed his institution's commitment to continue financing local projects.
Together, the AFD, the World Bank, and the government of Togo injected CFA1.056 billion into the FSB project.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
Togo: Lebanese businesses active in the free-trade zone invested CFA154 billion in 2022
Lebanese companies active in Togo’s free-trade zone invested about CFA154 billion in the country in 2022. According to the Investment and Free Zone Promotion Agency (API-ZF), which compiled the statistics, these businesses created 8,723 jobs for nationals.
These figures were unveiled on Oct. 10, by the minister of investment promotion, Manualla Santos. This was during a meeting with the association of Lebanese business owners of Togo; a meeting held as part of the ministry’s "Investors Breakfast". The meeting took place at the 2 Février hotel in Lomé.
Santos and her team seized the opportunity to present the entrepreneurs with the government’s efforts to improve Togo’s business climate and to cover bottlenecks that slow the Lebanese delegation in their investment and reinvestment. They were also introduced to some projects falling under the government's roadmap. These included energy, agriculture (processing of agricultural raw materials, mechanization), classroom construction, social housing, and tourism projects.
It is worth noting that the recent edition of the Investors Breakfast is the second meeting. The event aims to mobilize local and foreign actors around investment projects in the country. The first edition brought together Togo's business community, bringing together representatives of lawyers, architects, notaries, and customs declarants.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
African Microfinance Week: Over 1,300 experts and stakeholders expected in Lomé
Over 1,300 experts and stakeholders of the microfinance sector should attend the sixth edition of the African Microfinance Week (AMW). Set to take place in Lomé, from October 16 to 20, the event’s theme is: "Towards inclusive and sustainable finance".
"Experts and players in the microfinance sector, from some sixty countries, in Africa and other parts of the world, are expected in Togo to reflect on the development of this sector in which our country has achieved appreciable performance, occupying first place in the WAEMU, in terms of financial inclusion rate,” reads the report of the latest council of ministers of Togo, held on October 11.
The African Microfinance Week is a biennial event that promotes financial inclusion in Africa. Organized by the network of African microfinance institutions, with the support of the Togolese government, via the Ministry of Financial Inclusion, the event will feature talks on hurdles hampering inclusive finance on the continent.
Participants will explore ways to develop the sector; a sector which has experienced significant growth in Togo.
During the coming event, there will also be high-level conferences, networking opportunities, specialized training courses, and an investor fair aimed at improving access to financial services for those who are excluded from traditional financial systems.
According to the Togolese minister for financial inclusion and the informal sector, Mazamesso Assih, the meeting will also be an opportunity to highlight and share Togo's experience with other countries regarding microfinance.
Faure Gnassingbe’s country bests all its WAEMU peers when it comes to financial inclusion. With a penetration rate of 85.72% in 2022 (against 82.72% in 2021), Togo is ahead of Benin (85.52%) and Côte d'Ivoire (82.2%).
This week, Lomé hosted the SME Champions Forum, a pan-African gathering of financial, banking, and entrepreneurial players focusing on SMEs.
Togo announces upcoming reforms to modernize its oil and gas industry
The Togolese Ministry of Mining and Energy has several reforms in the pipeline to modernize these sectors, at the national level. The reforms were introduced by Mila Aziable, Minister of Mining and Energy, last Wednesday, during the council of ministers.
According to Aziable, the reforms should involve government players, municipalities, and the private sector.
One of the main reforms planned in the oil and gas sector is "Updating the regulatory and legislative framework in the oil and gas sector and drawing up a national plan for opening gas stations which will ensure even distribution (ed. Note: of oil and gas products) throughout the national territory,” said the government.
Reforms projected in the mining sector are focused on protecting the environment and local communities.
In this area, the authorities will make sure to involve local authorities in the process of granting operating permits, and all initiatives aimed at deterring illegal quarrying.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi