The Lomé-based pan-African banking group Ecobank and Mastercard want to support African farmers via the digitalization of agricultural value chains. The two parties sealed a deal to this end this week, according to a statement issued on June 14, 2022.

The deal aims at making it easier for small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to access Farm Pass, a Mastercard e-commerce platform for farmers.

According to the same source, the deal was signed in the presence of Paul-Harry Aithnard, UEMOA Regional Executive Director, Ecobank, Michael Froman, Vice Chairman of the Board, Mastercard, as well as Solomon Quaynor, Vice President for Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialization at the African Development Bank Group, which supports the initiative. 

“In the framework of this partnership, Ecobank will extend the coverage and impact of Mastercard’s Farm Pass platform by leveraging its pan-African network spread across 33 countries,” the new partners said. 

Farm pass is a payment solution that helps small farmers sell their products more easily and at a fairer price. 

"Farm Pass brings together diverse agribusiness stakeholders from both the supply and demand sides of the industry on a single platform, strengthening the positive and collective impact on farming communities," the release said. "Smallholder farmers can sell their products at a better price, access quality inputs and agricultural information, get paid, buy digitally, and develop a financial profile that can enable financing opportunities for working capital and inputs," it adds.

"The issue of food security is critical and urgent at this time. We must therefore rise to this challenge by creating opportunities for growth along the agricultural value chain in Africa. Our partnership with Mastercard is timely in accelerating access to urgently needed financial services for smallholder farmers to realize Africa's full agricultural potential. It will also bring value to the entire agricultural value chain to make agriculture in Africa more profitable, competitive, and resilient, thereby contributing to the continent's economic growth," said Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO.

Launched in 2015, Farm Pass claims to have impacted nearly one million small farmers in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and India, helping them boost their productivity and sell their products at a higher price – 25% to 50% more. 

Orabank is preparing to roll out new features on its multi-service digital banking platform ‘Keaz’ which it launched three years ago. 

The new functionalities, currently being tested internally, should, according to the lender, include, among others, transfers to prepaid cards, the delegation of authority, scheduling of payments, generation of "payment tokens", and the possibility for economic actors to perform new types of transactions through the platform dedicated to businesses (Keaz Pro, editor's note).

Also in the pipeline is a feature that allows agencies to be relocated by transferring skills to sub-agents. "All these features will be operational in the second half of 2022," said the CEO of the Togolese subsidiary, Guy Martial Awona (photo), at a meeting to popularize the application backed by the platform.

After recording a positive performance in the fiscal year 2021 (nearly 800 billion CFA francs of total assets, +36 billion compared to the previous year), Orabank has again been named the best bank in Togo by Global Finance magazine, in an increasingly competitive context.

Octave Bruce

The West Africa Food System Resilience Program (FSRP) was officially launched on June 15, 2022. This program, which was announced last November, is supported by the World Bank in Togo and six other countries in West and Central Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Chad).

It is a multisectoral initiative with a budget of $716 million whose goal is to “reduce the number of food-insecure people and strengthen the resilience of food systems,” the World Bank wrote in a press release issued on June 15, 2022.

In the long run, the program should directly benefit four million people, and it could be extended to the entire sub-region if the results satisfy the promoting institution.

Under the leadership of three subregional institutions, namely the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), and the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF), the RFSR will improve agricultural productivity through investments in climate-smart agriculture and the regional agricultural research system.

In its first phase, whose implementation has just begun, the program will fund interventions in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Togo, as well as actions implemented by ECOWAS, CILSS, and CORAF. In the second (which should be approved by the World Bank in July 2022), actions in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Chad will be financed.

In addition to the World Bank, the FSRP is supported by external partners such as the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Global Risk Financing Facility (GRIF).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

A Togolese delegation was in Washington last week, from June 6 to 10, to report the country’s progress in the Threshold Program to the top management of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). This program is funded by the U.S. Department of State.

The West African delegation included Cina Lawson, Minister of Digital Economy and Digital Transformation, Christian Trimua, Minister of Human Rights, Frederic Hegbe, Ambassador of Togo to the U.S., Stanislas Baba, Special Advisor, and Jeanne Bougonou, Executive Director of the Millennium Challenge Account Togo.

“Minister Cina Lawson presented to MCC, the vision of Togo in the digital world being implemented and how the Threshold Program’s ICT project contributes to this vision,” said MCC.

During one of the high-level meetings held, Jeanne Bougonou, Director-General OMCA-Togo, presented the "excellent results" of the program, after 10 months of work, in terms of implementation and compliance with procedures and policies established by the MCC, implementation of the project on land reform for agricultural productivity (LRAP Project), and the project on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT Project).

The Threshold program was signed three years ago between Lomé and Washington. With a CFA20 billion ($35 million) budget, it is mainly designed to support the country in reforming and improving the ICT and land sectors. The two projects carried out in this sense should make the country’s ICT sector high quality and affordable, within four years. Also, it aims to improve the regulatory framework, especially in rural land tenure, hence facilitating investment and increasing rural productivity.

The WAEMU’s commissioner, Paul Koffi Koffi, was in  Lomé on June 10 to discuss a program covering Togo’s Private Sector and the Union’s Department for Business Development, Mining, Energy, and the Digital Economy. On that day, he met with Nathalie Bitho, President of the Special Consular Delegation of the Chamber of Commerce of Togo (CCI-Togo).

The talks focused on the evolution of laws aimed at buttressing the private sector, particularly the regulatory framework, as well as the concerns of private economic operators. 

The WAEMU Commission, through the planned program, aims to support private actors who are negatively affected by the pandemic, across all its eight member countries. 

The program should also help consolidate the private sector’s achievements before the pandemic. “Currently, the Commission is considering the development and implementation of a post-crisis program to avoid losing all the gains we have made over the past decade and to restart the economic machine,” said Paul Koffi.

It should be noted that the other countries in the zone will also be involved in the process of developing the program.

Esaïe Edoh

The Board of Directors of the Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement or BOAD (West African Development Bank) announced on 14 June 2022, at the end of its 131st ordinary session, that it had approved a CFA28 billion loan to Togo. The money will be used to build and asphalt the Aléhéridé-Kpaza-Tchamberi road (North-Togo) as part of a wider road and bridge construction project that covers the whole country.

The BOAD added that the completion of this work in the north of the country will contribute to opening up the area and facilitating economic, social, and cultural exchanges both at the national and sub-regional levels.

The facility, which also supports Togo’s rural road development policy, will help cut travel time by 66% and vehicle operating costs by 60%, along the new road, said the Bank.

Last month, the French Development Agency (AFD) also injected €30 million (nearly CFA20 billion) into the PAPR II or Rural Trails Support Program, thus supporting Togo’s policy for opening up. 

The Togolese government, let’s recall, wants to build 4,000 km of rural roads in all five economic regions by 2025. Its motivation in doing so is to foster the integration of the rural environment, making it easier for households and farmers to access inputs and sales markets.

Esaïe Edoh

After months of being plagued by Jihadists, a state of security emergency has been declared in Togo’s Savanes region. The Council of Ministers made this decision on June 13, after examining and passing a draft decree to this effect. 

According to the government, the move aims to "create an environment and conditions that are conducive to the administrative and operational measures necessary for the proper conduct of military operations, the maintenance of order and security in this region.”

The recently-adopted decree will strengthen decision-making and foster greater agility of public services and defense and security forces, the Council of Ministers communiqué reads

The Ministers made the decision a day after the jihadist attack that targeted an advanced post of Koundjoaré operation, in Kpékpakandi (Kpendjal prefecture).

Esaïe Edoh

Gozem announced yesterday, June 13, that it has sealed a $10 million (CFA6 billion) financing deal with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Uber-like startup said it would use the funds to help 6,000 taxi-bike riders, in Benin and Togo, get new vehicles and increase their earnings.

According to Gozem’s cofounder, Grégory Costamagna, IFC’s financing will help overcome financing issues that the firm’s champions face. "To finance the replacement of their vehicles, taxi-bike riders in West and Central Africa need $3 billion of loans yearly. We are therefore delighted that the IFC trusts Gozem to be at the forefront of providing affordable financing to these underserved communities," he said.

Part of the new funds will also enable Gozem to get electric bikes which, in the medium-long term, could replace gasoline-powered bikes. IFC and Gozem, in this framework, “are working together to test electric bikes in the operating conditions of taxi-bikes,” in the next 12 months. 

The new partners added that large-scale adoption of hybrid bikes would “not only help cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly but also allow riders to save money, by cutting on energy and maintenance fees.”

Gozem, let’s recall, has helped over 2,000 of its champions get vehicles in 14 months, through its V+ program. 

In 2021, the startup raised CFA3 billion from AAIC, Thunes (TransferTo), Momentum Ventures (SMRT), Innoport Ventures (Schulte Group), CMC Ventures (National Express), and Liil Ventures (Mobility ADO) to expand across French-speaking Africa.

Esaïe Edoh

As part of its Economic Governance Support Project (PAGE), Togo will draw a tax revenue forecasting model and assess the impact of tax measures on its economy. To this end, Togolese authorities recently launched a bid to recruit a consultant to perform this task.

The bid, which Togo Presse (a local newspaper) published, states that consultants have until 22 June 2022 to submit their applications. Once selected, the winning bidder will have five months to complete the task, starting in September 2022.

Launched in 2018, the PAGE mainly aims to improve public investment management and domestic revenue mobilization, as well as strengthen accountability and monitoring mechanisms for service delivery in key sectors.

The project, which is set to end in 2023, was financially backed by the World Bank and European Union. They pumped $20 million into the PAGE. 

Esaïe Edoh