In Togo, the fund set up by the executive to support municipalities’ budget, will soon have a technical secretariat for its management committee. In this framework, a draft decree was examined, and adopted, by the Council of Ministers, in a meeting held late last week. 

According to the official communiqué of the council, setting up a technical secretariat should help local authorities better implement the projects financed by the fund. "Also, the activities of this secretariat will help evaluate the impact of efforts made by the government and its partners relative to the financing and development of local authorities," TogoFirst learned.

Regarding the fund’s distribution criteria, there are four basic ones, knowingly: uniformity of the status of the target municipality, its population size, the surface area it covers and its poverty index. It should be emphasized that the fund has been endowed with a budget of CFA6.25 billion for 2021.

Klétus Situ

Togo will need about CFA30 billion for its road maintenance projects next year. The projection was made by experts last Thursday, during a meeting held in Lomé and gathering representatives from the ministry of public works, road maintenance services, and the SAFER (Société Autonome de Financement de l'Entretien Routier). The meeting was aimed at elaborating a draft program budget for 2022.

In detail, SAFER hopes to secure CFA24 billion next year to rehabilitate roads and rural tracks, leaving a CFA6 billion deficit. "CFA24 billion were provided for 2022, based on projections. Of these CFA24 billion, 30% or CFA7.2 billion,  will be allocated to the Ministry of Accessibility and Rural Roads. The road network covers the national roads inland, paved roads, and rural tracks," said Togloh Komlan Edoh, Director of Road Maintenance.

Another 30% of these expected revenues will go to the office in charge of opening up rural areas and rural roads. "16.8 billion will remain to enable us to maintain the national road network, and cover part of the needs estimated at CFA30 billion," the director concluded.

It should be recalled that in 2020, it had been estimated that Togo would need CFA38.6 billion to maintain its roads.

This campaign, according to the tax administration, will allow it to draw up a tax map of the territory through the recording, processing and aggregation of the data collected which will be stored in a database.

According to the OTR, besides data collection, "such censuses are interesting for economic operators because they contribute to the development of their environment”.

All companies and entrepreneurs involved in public projects or who supply goods or services are called to get registered. Census agents have been deployed all over the country to this end.

The OTR indicated that the census is carried out in collaboration with local municipal authorities.

Esaïe Edoh

Actors of decentralized finance systems (DFS) took part last week in a two-day workshop on anti-laundering. The meeting which closed on Friday was organized by Expertise France and the Togolese cell that handles financial information (CENTIF-Togo).

Around 40 representatives from local DFS attended the meeting. They were trained by two experts who came from Benin and Senegal.

According to the CENTIF, microfinance institutions, both in Togo and the ECOWAS in general, are especially exposed to the laundering threat because they are poorly informed about their obligations regarding anti-laundering.

"SFDs are particularly exposed to the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, as indicated by the national risk assessments and mutual evaluations conducted by the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA)," said El Hadj Tchaa Bignossi Zakari Aquitème, representing the Togolese Ministry of Economy and Finance, at the opening ceremony.

Togo is the fourth country in the region to host this workshop. Benin, Senegal, and Ivory Coast preceded it. The training session is part of a project named "Organised crime: West African Response to Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (OCWAR-M)". The latter is financed by the European Union.

"OCWAR-M has a budget of about 4,430 million CFA francs (6.75 million euros), for a duration of 47 months, going from March 2019 to January 2023," commented Dr Piero Valabrega, program officer of the Delegation of the European Union in Togo.

The Golfe 1 municipality of Lomé needs CFA6.725 billion for its development over the 2022-2026 period. The figure is written in the municipality’s development strategy (PDC) which was presented last Wednesday to technical and financial partners as well as the civil society.

The PDC focuses on helping the youth and women become financially self-reliant. It also contains infrastructure projects and projects aimed at providing basic social services that will be accessible to all.

Joseph Gomado, mayor of Golfe 1, said the strategy would help “ensure a shared local governance in a peaceful and socially cohesive environment”. He added that the document would also foster the reinforcement of sectors that are key to the municipality’s sustainable economic development. “This PDC paves the way for concerted and coherent actions that will benefit the population”.

Golfe 1, one of the municipalities of the Grand Lomé autonomous district (DAGL), is in Lomé. It spans over 6,06 km2 and has 500,000 inhabitants, according to the DAGL’s estimates. 

Esaïe Edoh

Fishing has resumed at the Nangbeto lake, as announced last Wednesday by the minister of maritime economy, Edem Kokou Tengue. The resumption after a three-month pause was imposed to let the lake’s fauna regenerate.

However, the ministry in charge urged concerned fishermen to abide by a set of rules like having a permit or authorization issued. The use of mesh nets or similar to mosquito nets, mahogany, bamboo, or toxic products, among others, on the Lake, remains strictly prohibited.

In Togo, more than 20,000 people work in the fishing sector and the latter contributes to about 4.5% of the GDP. Regarding the Nangbeto lake, around 2,000 fishermen fish there. In 2019, they fished about 3,200 t, compared to just 600 t seven years earlier.

The Togolese parliament has adopted, last Tuesday, the State Budget Settlement Acts concluding years 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. The vote took place during the eleventh plenary session of the second ordinary session of 2021 which aimed at enabling the government to better execute its budget.

"I would like to emphasize that the settlement bills for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 that you have just voted, were adopted by the government after examining the reports of the Court of Accounts and taking into account its recommendations as well as the general statement of compliance between the General Account of the Administration of Finance and the accounts of the main accountants of the State,” Sani Yaya, minister of finance, told the deputies

In detail, the State Budget Settlement Act for 2016 stands at CFAF 945.5 billion (initial finance bill) and CFAF 991.3 billion (amended finance bill, at the end of the year), showing a negative implementation balance of CFAF 45.8 billion. The draft law of settlement of the State budget for 2018 shows budget revenues of CFA1152.8 billion and CFA1155.0 billion for expenditures, thus reflecting a negative difference of 2.2 billion CFA francs.

As for the 2019 budget, revenues and expenditures stood respectively at CFA1,343.8 billion and CFA1,321 billion.

Last week, the parliament adopted an amended budget for 2021 that totals CFA1,702 billion. This amount is up by 11.9% compared to the initial budget.

Meanwhile the 2022 finance law projects a total of CFA1,760 billion in revenues and expenditures (against CFA1,521 billion in 2021).

Ayi Renaud Dossavi

Togo inaugurated its first public transport observatory (OTT) last Tuesday. The building which was offered to the ministry of transport by the European Union (EU) cost CFA200 million.

The EU also equipped the facility (over CFA10 million spent) and bought two pick-up vans (CFA46 million) for the personnel.

The new observatory will assess any activity related to transportation of travellers and goods by land. In addition, “it will reinforce SME’s capacities, enabling them to fully play their role in the maintenance of roads in Togo,” said Michel Tindano, Secretary-General of the ministry of transport, at the inauguration ceremony.

The observatory was built as part of the regional program to support  governance in the transport sector, a program that covers West Africa.

Esaïe Edoh