Promoting women's financial inclusion benefits their communities, says Togo's Minister for Financial Inclusion and the Informal Sector, Mazamesso Assih. In a recently published op-ed titled "Women's financial literacy benefits all," the official advocates for women's financial education in Africa.

"In theory, African women can start a business. But in practice, they are not as well equipped to develop and secure their businesses over the long term," she said.

The minister proposes to equip women with the ability to understand and effectively use financial tools, which are essential for making informed financial decisions. “With the rise of women's entrepreneurship and the increasing participation of women in the workforce, improving women's financial literacy is more important than ever,” she said. 

For Mazamesso Assih, the development of women's economic potential creates equal opportunities, contributes to the development of their communities, and the economic growth of the country.

“Financial literacy is not a magic bullet for economic growth, it must go hand in hand with a robust financial system and an effective regulatory environment,” she said.

She notes that in Togo, efforts are being made in this direction. The World Bank in its 2020 report titled “Unleashing the potential of women's enterprise in Africa” said that the country is the only one in the West African Economic and Monetary Union where micro-enterprises run by women are more profitable than men’s.

Esaïe Edoh

The Lomé-based pan-African banking group Oragroup has secured €15 million from Eco.business, a European fund. According to a joint statement that the two parties issued on Feb 24, 2022, the loan will help finance sub-Saharan African (SSA) agribusinesses that have voluntary sustainability certifications.

“This investment will promote sustainable production and consumption practices among agribusinesses in the region,” said Eco.business. Furthermore, these resources should be invested in the 12 West and Central African countries Oragroup is present, with a focus on the UN's SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Combating Climate Change), and SDG 15 (Life on Earth).

“We are excited about our new partnership with Oragroup, which allows the fund to expand further in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, we are confident that we can help certified companies implement sustainable practices, thereby ensuring the long-term competitiveness of the agribusiness sector in the region,” said Dr. Jens Mackensen, Chairman of Eco.business’s board of directors.

For his part, Ferdinand Ngon Kemoum, Managing Director of Oragroup, declared: “This €15 million senior loan will allow us to increase support to our clients in the agribusiness sector, which we know can be the breeding ground for African prosperity.”

The Eco.business Fund was launched by the German KfW Bank (Development Bank), and Conservation International, with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Its mission is to promote business and consumption practices that contribute to biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources, climate change mitigation, and the adaptation of its impacts in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

The fund’s SSA arm was launched in 2020, with initial funding from BMZ.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The Togolese startup SEMOA will deploy all of its available services, including WhatsApp Banking, for Orabank’s subsidiaries in the country.

The two parties signed the related agreement on March 1, 2022. The document was initialed by Ferdinand Ngon Kemoum, MD Orabank Group, and Edem Adjamagbo, founder of SEMOA.

“Through this partnership, our Group continues to digitize its offer and allow access to banking services to as many people as possible, thus promoting financial inclusion, which we are actively working towards,” the bank said.

Concretely, “with this agreement, SEMOA makes its online services platform, including WhatsApp banking, available to the Orabank Group in the 12 countries where the bank is established. The group's customers can therefore access digital banking services such as balance consultation, bank statement requests, transfers, mobile money transfers from the platform developed by Semoa. Customers will also be able to simulate their bank loan by themselves,” the start-up said.

SEMOA is specialized in dematerialized payment services on the continent. Before this partnership with Oragroup, the company developed, among others, Xpress Cash, a mobile banking solution via WhatsApp, which allows its customers to make withdrawals without a bank card, from a Tmoney or Flooz account.

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

The Autonomous District of Greater Lomé (DAGL) launched, on March 1, 2022, the Social and Economic Infrastructure Census Project (PRISE), a campaign during which infrastructure such as schools, lighting networks, health centers, water towers, and rural roads in Greater Lomé will be identified and counted to provide the district with a map.

The project initiated by the government for the benefit of local administrations, especially their technical services, aims to modernize the country per the government's 2020-2025 roadmap which promotes territorial equity. It will serve as a tool for analysis, management, and optimization of decision-making, based on geospatial technologies and data. It will also allow the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of economic, social, and environmental development policies of the country, with emphasis on the fight against poverty.

“The objective is to leave no territory on the sidelines of development and to ensure equal opportunity for all citizens at all levels,” said Thierry Lakougnon, Director of Cabinet of the Ministry of Territorial Development.

According to Akakpo Konami, Director of Information and Mapping, the PRISE allows Togo to be in harmony with the directives of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) community regarding the improvement and implementation of new socio-economic infrastructures.

It should be noted that the operation is already underway in other municipalities, particularly those in the Savannah and Central regions.

 Esaïe Edoh

Togo will take a census of its citizens in the Diaspora, starting on March 8. This was disclosed by the country’s minister of foreign affairs and the diaspora, Robert Dussey. 

This is the first time that Togo will conduct such an operation. The announcement comes three years after the government created the High Council of Togolese Abroad (HTCE), a body that is meant to act as the voice of the diaspora. 

The upcoming census should provide accurate data on the number of compatriots living outside the country. It is part of a broader program to strengthen ties between Togolese abroad and their country. Still, under this program, a special window and an agenda were set up for them. The Togolese diaspora also has a headquarters in Lomé, the "House of the Diaspora," inaugurated last November by Minister Robert Dussey.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) will provide Togo with €14.1 million (a little more than CFA9 billion) to help it implement its five-year roadmap faster. Wilfrid Abiola, who represents the institution in Togo, and Sani Yaya, the minister of economy and finance, signed two agreements in this framework on February 28, 2022.

Most of the funds, €13 million, will, according to a statement from the AfDB, serve to implement the Project to support governance and private sector development. The monies will be disbursed as loans and grants.

The remaining €1.1 million, a grant provided by the AfDB and the African Development Fund under the Transition Support Facility, will help boost investments and build private-public partnerships.

Together, the two projects will allow Togo to keep improving financial governance and strengthen the institutional framework for the development and monitoring of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), by supporting the Ministry for Investment Promotion.

They “will also support the organization of the investors' forum, build the capacity of the private sector and raise awareness about the government's five-year roadmap, which covers three strategic areas and includes 42 priority projects and reforms,” a press release from the AfDB reads.

The first project will be implemented over four years, from the date of signature, while the second will be implemented over 18 months.

This new financing, according to Wilfrid Abiola, demonstrates the willingness of the African banking group to continue to “assist Togo’s efforts for development across various sectors, for the good of its people, and in line with the government’s priorities.”

Esaïe Edoh

Laurent Coami Tamegnon is again the President of Togo’s Council of Employers (CNP-Togo). He was re-elected for a second five-year term last Thursday. 

Over the next five years, he intends to unearth the headquarters of the Federation of Employers' Organizations of West Africa (FOPAO), which Togo is a member of. He hopes to do so with the help of all other eight members recently elected to sit with him on the CNP’s Board of Directors. “It is a heavy responsibility that we take again and for five years,” Tamegnon declared.

During his new mandate, Laurent Tamegnon said he would also work to implement the various conventions signed by Togolese employers. He and his entire team, the executive said, will “continue building an employers' organization that is even stronger and more representative, through planned initiatives.”

Founded over 60 years ago, the CNP represents more than 1500 companies and 24 professional associations.

Esaïe Edoh

Covid-19 has been an unparalleled health and socio-economic challenge for Togo. The claim was made last week by Sandra Ablamba Johnson, Minister, Secretary-General of the Togolese Presidency.

According to Faure Gnassingbé's collaborator, the health crisis has prompted Togolese authorities to design and develop new social policies to boost social protection and the resilience of economic actors and households to exogenous shocks. “The crisis has served as a laboratory for socio-economic and digital innovation with the establishment of a universal solidarity income to help citizens deprived of income-generating activities,” she wrote in an op-ed.

One of the initiatives of the government Johnson referred to was the Novissi digital platform. With it, the government distributed 13.3 billion CFA francs to 820,000 people as mobile money transfers. “This action, combined with other economic support measures financed by the state, has enabled Togo to avoid a recession that many considered inevitable,” the official noted.

Deployed only a few weeks after the pandemic broke out in the country, in April 2020, the Novissi cash transfer scheme was a success, according to Sandra Johnson. This success “demonstrates the opportunities that digital transformations for inclusion offer,” added the woman who also heads Togo’s business climate.

The project, she stressed, will serve “as a milestone for further advances, such as biometric identification, which will provide a digital identity to all Togolese to ensure universal health coverage and access to basic social and financial services.”

According to Sandra Ablamba Johnson, Lomé's response strategies have enabled the Togolese economy to record positive growth of 1.8% in 2020 and to reach 5.3% in 2021.

Esaïe Edoh