On March 10t, the World Trade Organization (WTO) launched a project to support eight African countries, including Togo, in the operationalization of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).  

Backed by the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), the project will support the implementation of more than 30 activities related to the continental initiative in the selected countries; namely Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Tunisia. It should help create an environment where trade can be more efficient and inclusive. 

“This program illustrates the spirit of partnership that is needed to support the implementation of the AfCFTA,” said WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the launch. She wants to strengthen the capacity of beneficiaries to achieve tangible results, such as jobs and other economic opportunities. 

The AfCFTA, let’s recall, aims to put in place a common framework and sets of standards across the African continent to ensure trade cooperation, harmonization, and efficiency of countries' trade relations. 

Esaïe Edoh

In an interview with We Are Tech Africa, a media outlet specializing in Tech in Africa, Emmanuel Cheriet, General Manager of Orange Cyberdefense for the Maghreb and West Africa, stressed the need for the continent to integrate the cybersecurity by design approach into the development of connectivity networks.

Cyberdefense specialist Emmanuel Cheriet believes that States and companies in Africa must systematically and voluntarily integrate cybersecurity into the development of connectivity infrastructures, to tackle cyberattacks that are on the rise. Quoting data from Check Point Research, Cheriet noted that the rate of cyber threats on corporate networks increased by 50% per week in 2021, year on year.

The Orange executive, while acknowledging that the connectivity race in Africa is normal, deplores the fact that security concerns are ignored. “You have to start with connectivity, but security is not always integrated by default. And that's a shame,” he said.

“When you put in place multiple means of communication, it increases the attack surface of a company or a state,” he added. “If this implementation and development of digital services are not accompanied from the beginning (design phase) to integrate security in the process, then the risk of cybersecurity will not be sufficiently covered and attacks will increase. It should systematize the integrated approach of cybersecurity to the development of connectivity networks.”

Besides, analysts at Cybersecurity Ventures predict that “the costs incurred because of cybercrime will grow by 15% per year over the next five years.”

Let’s recall that cybersecurity will be at the heart of the first International Summit on Cybersecurity in Africa, scheduled to take place in the Togolese capital from March 23 to 24, 2022. The event, which is expected to be attended by more than 700 participants including heads of State and ministers, should allow, according to its organizers (the Togolese Republic and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa), to lay the foundations for cross-border cooperation to combat cybercrime.

Togo, a West African country that dreams of becoming a digital hub by 2025 as stated in its vision "Togo Digital 2025", has undertaken many digital infrastructure projects that align with this vision.

Such projects include the Lomé Data Center, the CERT (National Cybersecurity Incident Response Center), the National Cybersecurity Agency (ANCy), and Cyber Defense Africa (CDA), a joint venture between the Togolese Republic and Asseco Data Systems (ADS), a European IT company.

Séna Akoda

Africa’s first cybersecurity summit will be held in Lomé this week, on March 23 and 24. Announced months ago, the summit was postponed because of the pandemic.  

Co-organized by the Togolese Republic and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the event will gather several African officials, and private actors operating in the IT security sector. They will discuss many topics, with cybersecurity and digital development experts. Among others, the Togolese Presidency said, participants, will explore innovative approaches to meet the challenges of cybersecurity on the continent, the challenges of cybersecurity in public policy, funding, and operationalization of cybersecurity strategies. 

“Discussions will also focus on the challenges of cybersecurity at a time when biometric identification is emerging in Africa, and on the sideline of the implementation of a public-private partnership and synergies between the CERT (editor's note: Computer Emergency Response Team) and the SOC (editor's note: operational security center based in Lome), as well as the identification and implementation of key success factors to strengthen regional collaboration in cybersecurity,” the Presidency added. 

Steered by the Togolese Ministry of Digital Economy and Technological Innovation, the upcoming summit also comes at a time when the Russia-Ukraine conflict is reviving interest in cybersecurity issues, with a spike in cyberattacks observed on the sidelines of military confrontations, according to several international sources.

The Togolese Cyber Defense 

Togo's cybersecurity efforts include its National Cybersecurity Agency (ANCy), as well as a National Cybersecurity Incident Response Center (CERT) whose mission is to identify, analyze and mitigate cyber threats affecting the Togolese state, citizens, businesses, and organizations.

The country has entered into a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with Poland's Asseco, for ASSECO Data Systems, to set up Cyber Defense Africa. This is a joint venture that provides services to defend Togo’s cyberspace and helps government agencies and private companies in the sub-region make their infrastructure safer.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Last Friday, Togo completed its fifth issue on the Umoa-securities market this year: it raised CFA30 billion. For the operation, Lomé issued fungible treasury bonds with a nominal value of 10,000 FCFA, a maturity period of five years, and a fixed interest rate of 5.6% per annum.  

According to the report released by the Umoa-securities agency, more than 100 billion FCFA were subscribed, i.e. a coverage rate of 346% of the amount auctioned. Mainly, Togolese, Beninese, and Burkinabe investors subscribed.  

So far into the year, the country has mobilized CFA124 billion on the regional market. This is out of CFA550 billion it seeks to finance its budget for 2022.

Esaïe Edoh

Today, Togo has inaugurated Google’s first African station of its new Equiano submarine cable. The inauguration ceremony took place at the Port of Lomé and was attended by many officials, including President Faure Gnassingbé himself.

“With this new submarine cable, we will be able to meet the needs of the government's roadmap for bolstering the international connection to the global network,” said Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Technological Innovation, during the inauguration.

In Togo, the Equiano Project is divided into two phases. The first focuses on laying the cable, while the second phase will focus on managing and selling international capacity to ISPs, both in Togo and neighboring countries. According to Lawson, the project would help lower internet prices in the region, in Togo especially.

The two phases will be implemented by CSquared, a Mauritius-incorporated firm that specializes in selling international capacity (internet) on the wholesale market. With a capital of $100 million, CSquared is a JV owned by Google, Mitsui from Japan, South Africa's Convergence Partners Fund, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). In Togo, Csquared teamed up with Société d'Infrastructures Numériques (SIN), a state-owned company created in 2016, to create CSquared Woezon. It is the latter that effectively maintains and operates the Equiano submarine cable as well as existing terrestrial fiber networks. SIN holds a 44% minority public stake in CSquared Woezon.

The Equiano submarine cable, let’s recall, is a new generation infrastructure that will run from Portugal to South Africa along the African coast of the Atlantic Ocean, connecting points such as Lomé (Togo), Lagos (Nigeria), Swakopmund (Namibia), and Cape Town (South Africa), with connections in place for the next phases of the project. The infrastructure is expected to provide approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cables built to serve the continent.

Equiano is the second cable connecting Togo to the rest of the world, after the WACS cable.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The government of Togo plans to expand the scope of intervention of the National Fund for Inclusive Finance (FNFI). To this end, on 16 March 2022, the Council of Ministers examined and validated a draft decree on the powers, structure, and operations of the Fund. 

According to Lomé, the goal is to redefine the functioning of the Fund and to determine its modalities. Ultimately, the government aims to democratize access to financial services and help achieve the objectives of axis 1 of the 2025 roadmap, namely “strengthening of social inclusion and harmony and the consolidation of peace.” 

This approach is being taken at a time when the fund launched in 2014 has, according to the government, a satisfactory track record in seven years. Over the period, the entity has granted 1,766,277 loans totaling CFA98.25 billion, for an average timely repayment rate of 92.46%. 

The loans were provided through a dozen products, the most recent being the N'Kodédé (progress in local language) and KIFFE training financing kits. 

The FNFI is a social development tool that helps reduce social inequalities and strengthen household resilience by allowing poor people to get loans for business purposes.

Esaïe Edoh